How they caught Ricco

[Groot Lem]

Drug maker cooperated with WADA

By VeloNews.com

Posted Jul. 23, 2008

The World Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday Italian rider Riccardo Ricc? tested positive at the Tour de France after a secret molecule was planted in the blood booster EPO during its manufacture.

Ricc?, 24, upset the big names of the sport to win two stages of this year's Tour before he was kicked off after testing positive for EPO (erythropoietin).

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.

Until this year's Tour, CERA, which is released into the body more slowly than its predecessors, had been thought to be undetectable by drug testers.

Fahey said such cooperation with drug companies was the way forward in fighting drug cheats.

"There's more and more of this occurring," he said. "The more cooperation the scientists can have with the drug companies in the detection of performance-enhancing drugs the greater the likelihood is they will be detected when tests are undertaken."

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Ricc? is one of three riders to test positive for EPO at this year's tour, tarring the race once again with a drugs controversy. He has denied using the substance, originally designed to boost red blood cell production in cancer and kidney patients suffering from anemia.

A spokesperson for California-based Affymax told VeloNews last week that the company, too, was cooperating with WADA in developing a test for its new drug, Hematide.

?Clearly we want to be ahead of the situation

[Saffa_G]

cool, clever boys, smarter than that slimy Italian Pony ....

[Tumbleweed]

so this is the 3rd generation stuff they're talking about. are there proper protocols in place to test and ratify the existence of this drug? is it on the banned list? is it official?

[Fusion]

I think its great that they're catching these guys and throwing them out for cheating. Now whenever you see a rider thats perfoming very well you have a momentary thought of "I wonder if he's doping?".

 

Anyways, wasn't the point of taking this epo meant to untracable and now the companies that make and sell the drugs are working with the WADA to catch the guys taking their OWN products??  So it's like, hey you can buy our product but we're just going to make you get caught by the authorities! hahaha!  Weird how the companies kill their market!

 

Dont get me wrong, like a said I'm glad they got caught because what they're doing is just plain wrong!!

[TitusTi]

The point of these drugs (like EPO) is not for enhancing athletic performance, that's just a nice side effect. It's actually for cancer patients.

[bruce]

 

I think its great that they're catching these guys and throwing them out for cheating. Now whenever you see a rider thats perfoming very well you have a momentary thought of "I wonder if he's doping?".

 

Anyways' date=' wasn't the point of taking this epo meant to untracable and now the companies that make and sell the drugs are working with the WADA to catch the guys taking their OWN products??  So it's like, hey you can buy our product but we're just going to make you get caught by the authorities! hahaha!  Weird how the companies kill their market!

 

Dont get me wrong, like a said I'm glad they got caught because what they're doing is just plain wrong!!

[/quote']

 

These drugs have perfectly legitimate medicinal uses.  Their use in performance enhancement is not their market, nor their intention.  In fact, inappropriate use will cause health problems - something the manufacturers of the drugs definitely do not want.  Besides, the market in high level sport is probably 0.000001% of the market in medical cases.

 

[Delgado]

I think its great that they're catching these guys and throwing them out for cheating. Now whenever you see a rider thats perfoming very well you have a momentary thought of "I wonder if he's doping?".

 

Anyways' date=' wasn't the point of taking this epo meant to untracable and now the companies that make and sell the drugs are working with the WADA to catch the guys taking their OWN products??  So it's like, hey you can buy our product but we're just going to make you get caught by the authorities! hahaha!  Weird how the companies kill their market!

 

Dont get me wrong, like a said I'm glad they got caught because what they're doing is just plain wrong!!

[/quote']

These drugs have perfectly legitimate medicinal uses.  Their use in performance enhancement is not their market, nor their intention.  In fact, inappropriate use will cause health problems - something the manufacturers of the drugs definitely do not want.  Besides, the market in high level sport is probably 0.000001% of the market in medical cases.

.....one of them being Cancer!! Makes one thnk?!

[Sean Badenhorst]

Actually, EPO is a red blood cell booster, which is mainly used by those who suffer from anaemia (a naturally low red blood cell count). Our bodies produce EPO on their own, but those that are anaemic don't produce enough, hence the need for the synthetic EPO.

 

A test for synthetic EPO was only finalised in 2000, throwing a cloud of suspicion on many, many endurance sport feats in the 80s and 90s, including marathon running (especially ultra marathons) and of course cross-country skiing and cycling.

 

[Tumbleweed]

i would still worry that this kinda story's gonna open a can of worms. bit claok and dagger, it seems.

[Delgado]

I was reading somewhere that CocoRico tried to dodge the drug testers and was cornered by them. They apparently advised him because of his evasive behaviour he would be tested everyday of the tour from then on!!

[loskop]

Ricc?'s positive not the result of secret molecule

 

By Laura Weislo

Contrary to earlier reports, Italian Riccardo Ricc?'s positive for EPO was not the result of a "secret molecule" being added to the drug to allow anti-doping authorities to more easily detect it. World Anti-doping Agency president John Fahey seemingly made the statement on an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday, but the agency's spokesman said his words may have been misinterpreted.

"No marker was inserted in the substance," the WADA spokesman said, clarifying that the tests which are being performed at the Tour de France are of a conventional nature. "Thanks to the fruitful cooperation of the manufacturer of this substance (Roche) and of WADA-accredited laboratories, which started in 2004, WADA received the molecule well in advance and was able to develop ways to detect it, including through the current EPO detection method."

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/jul08/jul24news2

[Tumbleweed]

<H3>Ricc?'s positive not the result of secret molecule

 

 

</H3>

 

By Laura Weislo

 

Contrary to earlier [color=#800080">reports[/color">' date= Italian Riccardo Ricc?'s positive for EPO was not the result of a "secret molecule" being added to the drug to allow anti-doping authorities to more easily detect it. World Anti-doping Agency president John Fahey seemingly made the statement on an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday, but the agency's spokesman said his words may have been misinterpreted.

 

"No marker was inserted in the substance," the WADA spokesman said, clarifying that the tests which are being performed at the Tour de France are of a conventional nature. "Thanks to the fruitful cooperation of the manufacturer of this substance (Roche) and of WADA-accredited laboratories, which started in 2004, WADA received the molecule well in advance and was able to develop ways to detect it, including through the current EPO detection method."

 

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/jul08/jul24news2[/quote]

 

 

 

they backpedalling, now? i was worried that somehow he was caught because the molecule was detected and not epo itself.

[wisecrack]

I think if more pharmaceutical companies like Roche first have to develop a test to detect substances like the new generation of EPO before releasing them into the market it will be great.

 

 

[Sean Badenhorst]

They're just adding some smoke. Don't want the dopers to know exactly what they're doing now do they, especially with the Olympics just three weeks away.

 

Bottom line. It's easy to change the molecular structure of a banned substance by adding just one hydrogen molecule. The testing systems are designed to look for a specific molecular structure and that is why the PED suppliers need to be kept in the dark as to which molecular structures are being tested for.

 

Still, the only way to clean up the sport properly is to get the cyclists themselves to police it.

 

[PPWTF]

 

 

regrettably policing yourself has never been the most effective way to get things done, although the ANC seem to revel in it......

 

(not a dig at you Sean, just an observation. The ANC on the other hand....)

 

That it is now public knowledge that the pharmaceutical companies are now actively involved in the anti doping effort should make for some interesting last minute  injuries / withdrawals from the Olympics and some surprising DNF / failure to progress from the heats performances as well......

 

A big leap forward in anti doping measures, just hope that making it public hasn't blown the cover

 

PPWTF2008-07-24 00:27:14

[BigGuy]

I think the fact is that Roche has a way of detecting if somebody is using CERA. How much time it will take someone to develop a masking agent for this test is debatable. I like the idea of inserting a signature into a drug, and maybe altering it every few weeks to confuse the masking, but it is science, and someone will pull it apart somehow. Almost like a a computer virus.

 

What I like is that this drug's half life is so extended that even if you take it now it might still be traceable for a few weeks from now. Great!