I Want to Believe – Drug maker cooperated with WADA

Freakin’ awesome.

Revealing the now high-tech nature of the fight against drugs in sport, WADA chief John Fahey said his organization worked with drugs giant Roche on the newest version of EPO (erythropoietin).

He said Roche had included a molecule in the third generation of EPO, called Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator (CERA) that acted as a marker in drug tests.

“In the development of that particular substance, close cooperation occurred between WADA and the pharmaceutical company Roche Pharmaceuticals so that there was a molecule placed in the substance well in advance that was always going to be able to be detected once a test was taken,” Fahey told public radio in his native Australia. [From VeloNews | Drug maker cooperated with WADA | The Journal of Competitive Cycling.]

Though, truth be told, I’m a bit bummed by this, as all it takes is a couple of rogue chemists to brew a “special” batch to beat the system.