By Kevin Shanks, M.S., D-ABFT-FT
Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) come in different varieties – opioids, cannabinoids, stimulants, hallucinogens, and benzodiazepines are just a few of the families on the illicit drug market. Axis developed the Novel Emerging Compounds (NEC) Panel to help detect the most newly emerged NPS on the drug market. The panel is meant to continually evolve in scope as new substances emerge on the street and then either continue to be prevalent or possibly disappear from the market.
This is intended to be a series of multiple posts briefly describing the compounds in the current iteration of the NEC Panel.
In the recent past, we have seen the emergence of NPS benzodiazepines such as etizolam, clonazolam, and flualprazolam. In this first summary of the NEC Panel, we are looking at two of the more recently emerged compounds are bromazolam and flubromazepam.
Bromazolam is a drug that has a history in pharmaceutical drug development as it was first synthesized in the 1970s as XLI-268, but it was never approved for medicinal use. The first emergence of bromazolam on the illicit drug market in the United States was in 2019, but it never became prevalent until more recently. The substance is the brominated analog of alprazolam, meaning it has a bromine atom in the place of the typical chlorine atom.

Chemical Structure Comparison of Alprazolam and Bromazolam Structures drawn by Kevin G. Shanks (2023).
Flubromazepam is a drug that also has a history in pharmaceutical drug development. It was first synthesized in 1960, but it did not receive any further study as a medicine. It appeared on the illicit drug market in 2012, but didn’t gain any traction for several years. Flubromazepam is a fluorinated analog of phenazepam, a benzodiazepine used as a medicine in Russia, meaning it has a fluorine atom in the place of the typical chlorine atom.

Chemical Structure Comparison of Phenazepam and Flubromazepam. Structures drawn by Kevin G. Shanks (2023).
Similar to other classical benzodiazepines such as alprazolam (Xanax), diazepam (Valium), or clonazepam (Klonopin), these compounds act pharmacologically as GABA (gamma-amino butyric acid) receptor agonists. They bind to the GABA receptor and initiate a change in chloride ion channels which leads to inhibition in the central nervous system. Common adverse effects reported by users of NPS benzodiazepines are consistent with those reported after using the classical benzodiazepines and include drowsiness, tiredness, sedation, loss of motor coordination, slurred speech, amnesia, and respiratory depression. Both bromazolam and flubromazepam are not considered controlled substances by the United States Federal government, but may be controlled at a state level as Schedule I controlled substances. Data from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) National Forensic Laboratory Information System in 2022 showed that bromazolam was now in the top 15 reported tranquilizers and depressants in the United States. Both bromazolam and flubromazepam have been previously implicated in human intoxication cases involving driving motor vehicles as well as being involved in toxicity leading to fatality.
Axis qualitatively monitors both of these compounds in our NEC panel (order code 13710) and Comprehensive Panel, Blood with Analyte Assurance (order code 70510) using liquid chromatography with quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (LC-QToF-MS). Over the time range 01/30/2023 – 06/30/2023, Axis has detected flubromazepam in 3 blood specimens across 3 states (Indiana, Ohio, and South Dakota) and bromazolam in 72 blood specimens across 15 states (California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin). Bromazolam was commonly detected alongside fentanyl/norfentanyl (n=59), 4-ANPP (n=46), acetylfentanyl (n=27), THC/THC-COOH (n=21), methamphetamine (n=20), and cocaine/benzoylecgonine (n=19). Flubromazepam was typically detected alongside gabapentin/pregabalin (n=3) and fentanyl (n=2).
Axis also monitors other NPS benzodiazepines in our Novel Psychoactive Substances panel (order code 13610). These additional compounds include adinazolam, clonazolam, etizolam, flualprazolam, and flubromazolam. As always, if you have questions about these substances and how they may apply to your toxicology casework or investigation, please reach out to our subject matter experts by email ([email protected]) or phone (317-759-4869, Option 3).
Stay tuned for the second post in the NEC Panel series – where we will take a look at two of the more recently emerged stimulant compounds: alpha-PiHP and N,N-dimethylpentylone.