Banned substances list expanded
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced on Wednesday that another category has been added to the list of banned substances. The executive committee of the agency met in Montreal last weekend and came to the decision to add a
“non-approved substances” section, which will allow them to test for substances that are sold illegally on the black market, and haven’t been approved for medical use or released by the pharmaceutical industry.
“While substances are in the research and development stage, sometimes they do get out there,” said David Howman, director general of WADA, to the Associated Press. “We just want to make sure that there is some way that they
can be covered because we are alert to the fact that they're picked up."
The list, which also covers veterinary drugs, was inspired by the discovery that blood-boosting drug CERA, which is largely replacing EPO in the peloton, was available on the black market for years before it was medically available and WADA started testing
for it.
“It came on the market in May or June 2008, but then we found out that it was on the black market as far back as 2005," said Howman.
At the 2008 Tour de France, Riccardo Ricco, Stefan Schumacher, Bernhard Kohl and Leonardo Piepoli were the first riders to test positive for CERA. All four were dealt two-year bans for using the drug, in the same year it had been approved by the pharmaceutical
industry.
"This is about looking to the future,” said Howman. “There wasn't a loophole that has been exposed. This is more a hole without the loop."
Ricco is returning to professional cycling this year, but has earned enough of a reputation for an Italian doping investigation to be named after him. Operation Cobra-Red takes its name from Ricco nickname, Cobra.
The cyclist returned with team Ceramica Flaminia at the beginning of the year, where he rode with brother-in-law Enrico Rossi, who was among six people arrested Tuesday by the Operation Cobra-Red investigators. Rossi’s sister Vania also tested positive for
CERA earlier this season but could not be charged after the B-sample came back clean. There are at least six more professional Italian cyclists being investigated.
The specific charges against Rossi have not yet been released.
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