The biopharmaceutical industry is teaming up with the World Anti-Doping Agency in the hopes of staying a step ahead of athletes who misuse approved and experimental drugs in an effort to gain an edge on their competition. The International Federal of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations joined the independent agency that coordinates and monitors the fight against doping in sport around the world.

The International Federal of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations is a global non-profit NGO representing the research-based pharmaceutical industry, including the biotech and vaccine sectors. Its members comprise 25 leading international companies and 46 national and regional industry associations covering developed and developing countries.

The declaration calls for members of the non-profit to provide voluntary cooperation in working with WADA to identify drugs with doping potential, minimize misuse of drugs still in development, share information, and facilitate development of detection methods to assist in the fight against doping in sport.
“As soon as a reliable method to detect a particular doping compound in athletes is developed, dopers start looking for a new compound which might enhance performance,” said John Fahey, president of WADA. “Working closely with pharmaceutical companies to identify new potential doping compounds before they enter clinical trials should facilitate much faster development of detection methods, which will benefit clean athletes worldwide.”

Under international rules, doping control samples from athletes can be stored for eight years by the anti-doping organization. The samples can undergo analysis as science advances, allowing for new detection methods to be applied even if a substance misused by an athlete for doping was undetectable at the time. WADA contends such retrospective testing is a strong deterrent.
Doping is by no means a modern phenomena. Athletes in classical Greece are thought to have used mushrooms to enhance their performance. Inca messengers chewed coca leaves to increase their endurance and ability to run at high altitudes. And, in modern times, athletes sought to boost their performance through the use of amphetamines, steroids, and biotechnology products developed to treat anemia as a way to boost oxygen carrying red blood cells.

“While the dopers have many approved medicines to choose from, their attractiveness for doping purposes is diminished by the fact that the products are well known. This means that their doping potential is more likely to be known to WADA and so it will take less time to develop tests for them,” says Haruo Naito President of the IFPMA, and president and CEO of Eisai. “However, medicines which are still in development are less well known, which might delay authorities’ awareness of their doping potential and also the development of tests. Candidate medicines are therefore of great interest to dopers, and this is one of the main reasons why the IFPMA and WADA have joined together to make this joint declaration.”
He says that the hope is the declaration will lead to bilateral agreements between pharmaceutical companies and WADA to identify drugs in development that could be used as doping agents.

“This should slam the door shut in the face of dopers who hope to abuse individual candidate medicines which are still in development,” says Naito. “To avoid giving early warning to dopers, we may have to be rather discreet about these individual agreements, at least in their early stages, but our declaration today nevertheless lays a solid foundation for a growing cooperation.”