Lives in the Balance: Why Doping Control Matters

As the Tour de France rolls onto stage 7, few in the general public know of the story of 21-year-old Linas Rumsas, but they need to consider it. Especially on this day, July 13, 2018, the 51^st anniversary of cyclist Tommy Simpson’s death.

People ask us all the time why doping control matters. Some argue that it doesn’t and that we should just let folks use what they want. A doping free-for-all. Cynics might say that plenty of dopers have already escaped through the net in sports, at least for a time: Lance Armstrong, Tim Montgomery, Marion Jones, to name a few.

Linas Rumsas was an up-and-coming cyclist whose life was cut short after he abused performance-enhancing drugs. Photo: Team Altopack-Eppela

The story of young Linas, a promising cyclist whose life was cut short after abusing performance-enhancing drugs, reminds us that doping can kill. We would be wise to remember that it has happened before. Linas’ story is one of the saddest we have come across and it powerfully demonstrates why many of us who have chosen to pursue anti-doping continue to do so. This one story illuminates in no uncertain terms the realities of what we all face with the scourge of doping, and yet outside of Italy and frequent readers of Cycling News, few sports fans have probably heard of it.

There have been others who have perished from doping. According to ProCon, which provides a comprehensive historical timeline of doping in sports, the first modern athlete chronicled to have died from doping was the Danish cyclist Knut Jensen at the Summer Olympics in Rome in 1960. Heat was the initial culprit but his autopsy found traces of Ronicol. ProCon describes Ronicol as an amphetamine, but Ronicol would be described more accurately as a vasodilator and can be used as an anti-ischemia drug. Though it is not on the 2018 WADA Prohibited List, it is similar to meldonium in many ways.

Stop to consider that the first drug to have been implicated in the death of an athlete in the Olympics in 1960 is not banned today! Ronicol, otherwise known as nicotinyl alcohol, is not prohibited as confirmed by the Global DRO. Its cousin meldonium wasn’t prohibited by WADA until 2016, when it caused hundreds of athletes to test positive. Some might like to think that doping is behind the peloton, but we fear it may still be in the middle. Just in a form we don’t currently define as doping, like Ronicol.

Fifty one years ago today on July 13, 1967, Tommy Simpson infamously died on the slopes of Mount Ventoux during Stage 13 of the Tour at the age of 29. His death was one of the central moments in anti-doping history. Shortly thereafter that same year the International Olympic Committee (IOC) created the IOC Medical Commission and the first drug testing began at the Olympics in 1968, with narcotics and stimulants making up the initial prohibited list. Steroids were not added until 1975.

There have been other examples of athlete deaths that have been seminal. MLB pitcher Steve Bechler, of the Baltimore Orioles, died during drills in 2003. Ephedrine was indicated as a contributing cause in his premature death, which played a role in the regulation of ephedrine as a dietary supplement ingredient in the United States.

Steroids have played a role in the demise of many young athletes, including Taylor Hooton, Efrain Marrero, and just two days ago, a young 18-year-old Irishman in Limerick. Numerous stories exist of athletes who went too far with blood doping, or performed transfusions the wrong way, leading to dire consequences. Many stories are out there but few are known to the broader sporting public.

Linas Rumsas’ story reminds us that the scourge of doping is still present and that it is just as deadly today as it was in 1967 when amphetamines derailed the promising life and career of Mr. Simpson.

Linas Rumsas is the son of Raimondas Rumsas, who himself was a professional cyclist and took third place in the 2002 Tour de France. After Raimondas’ wife Edita was caught with a van full of drugs on the way home from that Tour, they both received four-month suspended sentences in 2006. Raimondas later tested positive for EPO during the 2003 Giro d’Italia. Sadly, this experience did not seem to deter them from apparently assisting their two children with doping.

Linas rode for the Altopack-Eppela squad in Italy and had already been a national road race champion. But in May 2017, he died at age 21 of a heart attack. It was nearly 50 years to the day after Mr. Simpson had died.

Upon Linas’ death, police searched his family’s home and seized a number of banned substances and medications. In September 2017, his older brother Raimondas Jr. tested positive for the prohibited substance GHRP-6, a peptide that produces natural growth hormone. It seems a cocktail of banned substances and other medications were being used at the family home.

The result of all this has been one family torn apart, again, from doping. Perhaps doping didn’t matter to the Rumsas family either until their son died. But Linas didn’t just die, if the allegations in this case hold true. He died as a result of family support and encouragement to dope.

It gets worse. In the course of the investigation, six people have been arrested in an apparent team-sponsored doping program including the team owner, directeur sportif, pharmacist, and trainer, who stand accused of providing drugs to riders. Seventeen other people are being investigated. Sadly, however, it is too late for Linas.

Unfortunately, the recent decision to allow Chris Froome to ride again with no sanctions after testing positive for elevated levels of salbutamol has called into question the validity and utility of the anti-doping system, again, at least in some people’s eyes. WADA has tried to explain the reasoning now, including clarifying the levels (1,428 ng/ml of urine, when adjusted for specific gravity, which is above the decision limit of 1,200 ng/ml). The reasons may not satisfy everyone, or anyone, but Froome’s case is certainly not a reason to give up on anti-doping.

Linas’ story personifies why giving up on anti-doping is simply not an option and should remind us all that doping is a significant matter. In fact, it is all the more reason to recognize that the failures of the anti-doping system are largely due to a lack of resources and money. For that to change, more people will need to truly understand what is at stake when athletes dope and to demonstrate the will to do more to combat the problem.

– Oliver Catlin

Dr. Don H. Catlin and Performance-Enhancing Drug Tests

The Development of Key Performance-Enhancing Drug Tests

Since founding the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory in 1982 and serving as its director for 25 years, Don H. Catlin, M.D., has been instrumental in discovering new performance-enhancing drugs and establishing methods to uncover athletes’ use of various substances. His research, while both conducting doping control and simply focusing on new and evolving drugs, has been vital in the creation of many of the tests currently used to detect performance-enhancing drugs. As the New York Times noted in 2007, “Some call Dr. Don Catlin… the father of drug testing in sports.”

He and his son, executive Oliver Catlin, founded the well-regarded supplement certification provider BSCG (Banned Substances Control Group) in 2004. The Catlins’ expertise is unparalleled and often sought on the more complicated issues facing both anti-doping research and supplement testing. Here, we’ll take a brief look at some of Dr. Catlin’s key performance-enhancing drug (PED) breakthroughs and where more information can be found about them.

Renowned anti-doping pioneer Dr. Don H. Catlin in his Los Angeles laboratory in 2008. (Photo from The Catlin Consortium.)

Developed the CIR Technique to Distinguish Natural from Artificial Testosterone

In the late 1990s, Dr. Don Catlin was the first to develop and offer the carbon isotope ratio, or CIR, test to determine whether testosterone or an anabolic steroid has been made naturally by the body or has come from a prohibited substance. This highly accurate test was the first technique capable of detecting synthetic testosterone, rather than simply gauging the body’s reaction to the substance. Dr. Catlin used for comparison a person’s endogenous reference compound (ERC) such as cholesterol to help determine the body’s natural carbon make-up. The testosterone CIR test was considered revolutionary and has proven useful and highly reliable; despite many challenges by athletes testing positive over the years, the Court of Arbitration for Sport has never found any fault with it.

More Info

See an info-graph about his test put together in 2006 for the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/08/01/sports/02landis-graphic.html

Academic Publication

Catlin DH, Hatton CK, Starcevic S. Issues in detecting xenobiotic anabolic steroids and testosterone by analysis of athletes’ urine. Clinical Chemistry 1997;43:1280-1288.

First Reported Use of a Form of EPO (Darbepoetin Alfa) in Sport

While overseeing the drug testing at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Dr. Catlin revealed the use of a form of EPO, or erythropoietin, (darbepoetin alfa), for the first time in sport. He used a new test developed by French scientist Dr. Françoise Lasne to detect this long-lasting form of EPO, a then newly approved drug for anemia patients that helps boost red blood cells and aids in endurance but can lead to serious health outcomes such as heart attack and stroke. Three Olympic cross-country skiers, including gold medalists Larissa Lazutina of Russia and Johann Muehlegg of Spain, were suspended and their medals stripped after they were found using the substance in Olympic competition.

More Info

For a thorough introductory account of this story, read the nonfiction book “The Night Olympic Team” (Boyds Mills Press, 2008), written for older kids by Caroline Hatton, Ph.D., one of the scientists working in the Olympic lab under Dr. Catlin.

Academic Publication

Catlin DH, Breidbach A, Elliott S, Glaspy J. Comparison of the isoelectric focusing patterns of darbepoetin alfa, recombinant human erythropoietin, and endogenous erythropoietin from human urine. Clinical Chemistry 2002. 48: 2057-9. Full Text PDF

First Reported Designer Steroid, Norbolethone

In 2002, Dr. Catlin was the first to report the use of a designer anabolic steroid in sport. He identified norbolethone (or norboletone) for the first time in an athlete’s urine sample. Norbolethone had been developed in the 1960s as a treatment for growth and weight gain but was deemed harmful and never brought to market. Patrick Arnold and Victor Conte introduced it to athletes through the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO). Dr. Catlin’s discovery of the substance was a wake-up call that some athletes were abusing designer steroids. The Chicago Tribune named Catlin Sportsman of the Year for 2002.

More Info

More about norbolethone and Dr. Catlin’s original test can be found on PubChem, a website of the U.S. National Library of Medicine: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/norbolethone#section=Top

Academic Publication

Catlin DH, Ahrens BD, Kucherova Y. Detection of norbolethone, an anabolic steroid never marketed, in athletes’ urine. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 2002. 16:1273-5.

Second Reported Designer Steroid, THG

In 2003, Dr. Catlin identified and developed a test for THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone, the second reported designer anabolic steroid. This discovery famously came from a sample contained in a used syringe delivered anonymously to USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency), who subsequently passed it along to Dr. Catlin for testing. THG was the active ingredient in “The Clear,” a previously “undetectable steroid” created and distributed by BALCO to some top American and British Olympic and professional athletes. Dr. Catlin credited his large team of capable researchers and chemists with finding the substance and developing a new test for it, saying the accomplishments “took all the skills that are represented in this lab.” In 2009, Newsweek magazine named coach Trevor Graham’s decision to send the syringe to USADA one of the decade’s “Top-10 History-Altering Decisions.”

More Info

For more about Dr. Catlin and the BALCO story, read this 2004 Washington Post article by Amy Shipley: “One Mastermind Behind Two Steroids,” July 29, 2004. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22151-2004Jul28.html

Academic Publication

Catlin DH, Sekera MH, Ahrens BD, Starcevic B, Chang YC, Hatton CK. Tetrahydrogestrinone: discovery, synthesis, and detection in urine. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 2004. 18: 1245-9.

Third Reported Designer Steroid, Madol or DMT

In 2004, Dr. Catlin identified madol, the third reported designer anabolic steroid. Madol, short for methylandrostenol, and also known as DMT, or desoxymethyltestosterone, (not to be confused with dimethyltryptamine) was the active ingredient in the third generation of “The Clear,” found during a raid of the BALCO lab in 2003. The steroid, a potent testosterone derivative that can seriously damage the liver and heart, was designed in the early 1960s but never made it to market. After being discovered in dietary supplements, DMT was made a controlled substance in the United States in 2010.

More Info

For more about DMT, THG, and BALCO, see the news article “Athletics: New steroid designed to fool drug-testers,” from Reuters, The New Zealand Herald, Feb. 2, 2005. http://m.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10009252

Academic Publication

Sekera MH, Ahrens BD, Chang YC, Starcevic B, Georgakopoulos C, Catlin DH. Another designer steroid: discovery, synthesis, and detection of ‘madol’ in urine. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 2005. 19: 781-4.

Multiple Reports of New Anabolic Steroids

In 2005, Dr. Catlin discovered five new designer anabolic steroids in dietary supplements sent to him for testing by the Washington Post. One substance found in the supplement Halodrol-50 closely resembled oral turinabol, the principal anabolic steroid abused by East German Olympic athletes in the 1960s and ’70s. Some 800 athletes later reported serious ailments after taking that steroid, referred to as “the blue bean.” Halodrol-50 was discontinued but a version called Halodrol resurfaced online in 2016.

Dr. Catlin also found the new designer steroid methasterone in the supplement Superdrol. This discovery prompted anti-doping authorities to focus on curtailing the sale and use of pro-hormone supplements, often toxic to the liver. WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency) soon added the compound to its list of banned substances in sport, and in 2009 the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) raided Bodybuilding.com in part over the sale of the compound, which represented the largest enforcement action up to that time in the supplement industry.

More Info

See early Washington Post story, “Steroids Detected In Dietary Tablets,” by Amy Shipley, Nov. 30, 2005: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/2005/11/30/steroids-detected-in-dietary-tablets/938990b4-5956-48a5-8804-7f5ae6d561e3/?utm_term=.9d357da69081

“Designer Steroids: Hide and Seek” by Amy Shipley, Bonnie Berkowitz, and Christina Rivero, Washington Post, Oct. 18, 2005. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2005/10/18/GR2005101800648.html

“Forgotten victims of East German doping take their battle to court,” by Luke Harding, The Guardian, Oct. 31, 2005: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2005/nov/01/athletics.gdnsport3

“Bodybuilding.com, LLC and Jeremy DeLuca Plead Guilty in Federal Court to Violating FDCA,” FDA News Release, May 22, 2012. https://www.fda.gov/ICECI/CriminalInvestigations/ucm305494.htm

Academic Publication

Catlin DH. Anabolic steroids. In DeGroot LJ, Jameson JL, eds. Endocrinology Elsevier Saunders 2006; 5th Edition: 3265-82. (Book chapter.)

First Report of the Designer Stimulant Methylhexaneamine

In 2006, in another analysis of a dietary supplement at the behest of the Washington Post, Dr. Catlin was first to identify the designer stimulant methylhexaneamine, a potentially deadly amphetamine-like substance. This compound was found in Ergopharm’s Ergolean AMP, a product formulated by BALCO chemist Patrick Arnold, who was then awaiting sentencing for his role there. The product was pulled from the market, but in 2011 USADA issued an official warning to athletes to avoid the dangerous stimulant in a range of supplement products after a rash of positive test results. Unlike some problematic supplement ingredients, this compound often could be found in supplement ingredient lists—under the names methylhexaneamine, 1,3-dimethylamylamine (DMAA), dimethylpentylamine (DMP) 4-methylhexan-2-amine, Geranamine, and geranium oil, extract, or stems and leaves.

More Info

For more information, see the original Washington Post story “Chemist’s New Product Contains Hidden Substance,” by Amy Shipley, May 8, 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/07/AR2006050700913_2.html

USADA Advisory “Beware: Your Supplement Could Cause a Positive Test,” June 16, 2011. http://www.usada.org/athlete-advisory-methylhexaneamine-and-dietary-supplements/

A Multitude of Contributions

Dr. Catlin’s contributions to detecting PEDs have extended beyond these remarkable breakthroughs. Among other things, he determined the pharmacokinetics of steroids such as androstenedione (“andro,” formerly sold over the counter) and DHEA, provided analytical consulting as part of government action to identify and expose designer drugs like the aromatase inhibitor 6-OXO and the designer steroid Tren in supplement products, and succeeded at adapting a test for the potent blood-boosting drug CERA (sold under the brand name Mircera) for equines.

More Info

For more information about Dr. Don Catlin and his current work safeguarding supplements, visit the BSCG website at http://www.bscg.org/.

Note: The term “designer steroid” is defined as a synthetic steroid derived by simple chemical modification from another steroid, often an anabolic steroid. The word “designer,” however, can refer to compounds that are either novel or recycled and repurposed as performance-enhancers. Today these problematic substances sometimes find their way into legally sold supplement products.

— Joseph Taylor

Gordon Adds Another Dee to PED Discussion – The Steroid Dilemma Continues for MLB

Baseball Stadium – 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, Photo by Oliver Catlin

While most people were waking up to a wonderful Friday morning, baseball fans were discovering some more depressing news in the announcement that Dee Gordon, infielder for the Miami Marlins, has been suspended 80 games due to test results revealing two performance-enhancing drugs (PED) in his system. Gordon had originally appealed the decision, but decided against appealing Friday morning.

Thursday night, Gordon revealed to his teammates, after a 4-game sweep of his former team in Los Angeles, that he tested positive earlier this year for synthetic testosterone and Clostebol, an anabolic steroid. He released a statement this morning through the MLB Players Association saying the following:  “Though I did not do so knowingly, I have been informed that test results showed I ingested something that contained prohibited substances. The hardest part about this is feeling that I have let down my teammates, the organization and the fans. I have been careful to avoid products that could contain something banned by MLB and the 20+ tests that I have taken and passed throughout my career prove this. I made a mistake, and I accept the consequences.”

Responses to the statement have been coming faster than Dee Gordon stealing second. Players, from all teams, are showing concern and making comments on the news about Gordon’s suspension.

Figure 1 Tweets by MLB players in response to Dee Gordon’s PED suspension

Justin Verlander’s Twitter response adds powerful perspective to the issue and shows how personal it is to the players, the majority of whom love and respect our national pastime.

Figure 2 Twitter post made by Justin Verlander from the Detroit Tigers. 

Why was Gordon Allowed to continue playing when these test results came in?

Gordon won the National League batting title in 2015 and was an All-Star player while with the Dodgers and the Marlins. Having him on the field obviously makes him a valuable asset to a team. You can ask anyone who was at Dodger Stadium Thursday night when Gordon “delivered the game-tying RBI single for the Marlins in the seventh inning,” which more or less solidified the series sweep.

Gordon had originally appealed the test results, meaning that nothing was going to be released publicly until the situation had been decided, which is in accordance with MLB policy. He was allowed to continue to take the field while the case was going through the appeal process. The news became public Friday morning, because Gordon decided to no longer appeal the results. But his answer just leads to more questions.

Should the punishment be more severe for players who cheat?

The topic of performance-enhancing drugs in the league has been trending lately due to the recent announcement of the Chris Colabello doping violation a week ago, Taylor Teagarden’s suspension earlier this month, as well as allegations of Chicago Cubs’ pitcher, Jake Arrieta, cheating after his recent successes on the field drew attention. Gordon’s suspension has further catalyzed conversations already in motion about what to do with his test results as well as the punishments associated with them.

The USA Today summarized the MLB penalties as of March 28, 2014 as follows: “Players and owners announce penalties will increase to 80 games for a first testing violation and to 162 for a second, and a season-long suspension will result in a complete loss of that year’s salary, rather than 162-183rds. A player who serves a PED suspension during the season will be ineligible for that year’s postseason.”

Even with these changes made, is it enough to incentivize players to not cheat? Many aren’t so sure. In an article released on April 21, by Fox Sports, the opinions players have about the MLB drug-testing program were discussed. Ever opinionated on the topic, Verlander discussed a potential way to clean up the league. “Maybe more severe punishments,” he said. He also mentioned that “It’s too easy for guys to serve a suspension and come back and still get paid,” which is what will happen with Gordon.

Another player, Matt Holliday from the St. Louis Cardinals, gave his take on punishments for cheating players in the article. “If you’re caught taking something where they prove that you’re trying to cheat,” he said, “that it’s a legitimate steroid or testosterone. I’m all for a year, two years, to keep guys from trying to cheat…for as harsh a penalty as possible. I’m all for second chances. But if you make the penalty super, super stiff, guys will think twice. They’ll look at 80 games and think, ‘That’s not that big a deal.’ But if you start taking away two years, that’s a lot of money. That might be different.”

We can all speculate that harsher punishments would make it a more difficult decision for players to take banned substances. They would also make it even more of a priority to be aware of what is in dietary supplement products or other medications athletes use. Lack of knowledge in this area can lead to problems, just ask Maria Sharapova, who tested positive at the Australian Open for the banned substance Meldonium. Thankfully, in the case of supplements, third-party certification programs like the BSCG Certified Drug Free® program are available that evaluate and test supplements to ensure they are free of banned substances to help mitigate the risks for athletes.

Is there incentive for players to cheat, regardless of the current punishments?

Gordon was traded to the Miami Marlins at the end of his best season with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2014. Flash Gordon looked great in Dodger blue. Many fans in Chavez Ravine were sad to see him leave, especially having seen his stats soar after leaving. Of course, now that Gordon added another Dee to the PED discussion opinions have changed as we don’t need another superstar turned PED poster boy in L.A.

Last season, Gordon won the National League batting title with a .333 average. That was a big deal, due to the fact that he was neck-and-neck with Washington Nationals outfielder, Bryce Harper. He also led the league in stolen bases, with 58, a number not seen since JACKIE ROBINSON (yes, that guy) did it in 1949. Dee Gordon ended 2015 with the label “Big Deal” associated with his name and, as a result, was given a five-year, $50 million contract extension with the Miami Marlins.

Interviews were conducted before the 4-game series against the Dodgers on April 25th, prior to Gordon’s announcement. It was there, when Don Mattingly, who you might know as Donnie Baseball or the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2011 to 2015, discussed being the new manager of the Marlins and his thoughts of Gordon as a player, “What I always liked about him was his swing. You have to remember he was 140-something pounds when he started and now he’s brought it up to about 170. This is a kid that’s put on a lot of mature strength and his speed tools aren’t going away. That’s something that makes you feel really good about what he can do.”

As his manager ironically noted, Gordon was getting bigger, stronger, and better. The pressures that come with playing at this level include maintaining his skills in order to prove he is deserving of that label “Big Deal”. It isn’t unfathomable for a player to resort to taking performance-enhancing drugs in order to keep oneself at that professional level. It has been done before!

Gordon’s current punishment, aside from the 80-game suspension, includes a fine of $1.65 million. One might think that is a lot of money, until you realize it doesn’t even touch the $48.35 million he is still guaranteed on his contract. This being said, one could conclude that Gordon fought hard to earn this big paycheck, at any means possible, because cheating was worth close to fifty million dollars for him.   

Did Gordon use performance-enhancing drugs with mal intent? Did he cheat to gain weight and strength throughout his career? Was he trying to keep that “Big Deal” label while in Miami, or make it even bigger? Could this be something that happened unknowingly as his public statement claims?

While those questions linger, a single theme seems to resonate in professional baseball; even though a player’s failed test leads to a tarnished reputation, or demotion to the minor leagues, or retirement, or 80 game sanctions, he still makes millions of dollars. This is perhaps one reason why the issue of abusing banned substances in professional sports can be rationalized by players. Buster Olney’s statement about Gordon’s suspension puts it well, “the incentive to cheat will far outweigh the risks involved in being caught. Whatever the intent, whatever the justification, PED crime in baseball pays well.”

If we can learn anything from the past two days, it is that the PED discussion is far from over in MLB. Those who thought the steroid era was over may need to reconsider. We also need to reconsider how the system can be improved and made stronger for the sake of the players and the fans who love our nation’s pastime. For now, Gordon is just another name added to the list of MLB players that have tested positive for PEDs. He isn’t the first, sadly–he won’t be the last.

Amazon.com: An unfettered marketplace for banned and illegal drugs masquerading as dietary supplements

Banned and illegal drugs, by definition, should be hard to get, shouldn’t they? Unfortunately, the reality is quite the opposite; just explore Amazon.com, one of the largest marketplaces for banned or illegal drugs masquerading as dietary supplements.

Need steroids?  There are plenty of options.  New stimulant compounds that the FDA and other international authorities consider illegal and have proven harmful; no problem those are in stock.  What about new drugs that have yet to be approved for human consumption?  Sure you can get those too.  We explore a few startling examples of the illegal and potentially dangerous compounds available today at Amazon.com.

Steroids have been a concern for consumers and athletes for decades.  Pharmaceutical steroid development reached a pinnacle in the 1960’s with a handful of steroids like stanozolol and nandrolone approved for human use, after being evaluated for safety and toxicity. 

Since then a proliferation of prohormones, designer steroids or steroids in disguise, appeared in the dietary supplement marketplace and in positive drug test results in sport.  Unlike approved steroids, the safety, toxicity and approved dose of such compounds are unknown, and some, particularly 17-alpha-methylated steroids like Superdrol, have proven to be toxic and dangerous.  The drug caused liver failure and a positive drug test for an NCAA athlete Jareem Gunter in 2005.

With the BALCO scandal in 2003, that unearthed the doping escapades of Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and Barry Bonds, came attention.  Steroids like ‘THG’ and ‘Madol’ were at its heart.  President George W. Bush focused on steroids in his 2004 State of the Union Address.  Later that year, Bush signed the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004, which was enhanced with the passing of the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2012.

The FDA took prominent action in a highly publicized raid of Bodybuilding.com in November 2009.  In one of the largest regulatory actions to date, the FDA found 65 illegal steroid products for sale that contained five steroid compounds, “Superdrol,” “Madol,” “Tren,” “Androstenedione,” and/or “Turinabol.”  In 2012, as a result of this case, a fine of $7 million dollars was levied against Bodybuilding.com.

Unfortunately, Amazon did not heed the president’s 2004 State-of-the-Union message, nor the legal regulations in the Anabolic Steroid Control Acts, nor the prominent FDA enforcement action against Bodybuilding.com.

Amazingly, in January 2011 we noted in a blog post that products the FDA had raided Bodybuilding.com for in 2009 were still available at Amazon.com, namely CEL M-Drol, which contained ‘Superdrol’ (Superdrol, also known as methasterone, has the scientific name 2α, 17α-dimethyl-5α-androstane-3-one-17β-ol).  The Washington Post reported the story on January 19, 2011, numerous other news outlets followed with their own coverage.  We at The Catlin Consortium had hoped that by publicizing the issue Amazon would be put on notice allowing the company to address the issue responsibly.

That has not happened.  Instead, CEL M-Drol remained available at Amazon.com on September 10, 2013.  It has since mysteriously disappeared from the site after we
included the link in a supplement industry presentation in late September.  ‘Superdrol’, however, continues to appear in another product called M-Stane, which lists the compound on the label under the name 2a-17a-dimethyl-5a-androst-3-one-17b-ol.

M-Stane is only the tip of the iceberg.  As of October 20, Amazon.com still had two products available that were named on the FDA raid list in 2009; Kilo Sports Trenadrol and Purus Labs Nasty Mass.   A search for ‘prohormones’ on Amazon.com returned 125 products on October 20.  Many likely contain steroids or related substances. 

But the concern doesn’t stop with steroids.  Dangerous new stimulants like methlyhexaneamine and methamphetamine analogs, appearing as pre-workout supplements, remain available at Amazon.com.  Of particular concern is the original version of Jack3D from USP Labs and Craze from Driven Sports.

Jack3D grew to be one of the most popular pre-workout supplements on the market over the last several years.  The original version contained the now infamous stimulant methylhexaneamine, otherwise known in the industry as DMAA, geranamine, geranium oil extract and other names.  Patrick Arnold, the BALCO chemist, filed a patent for the compound under the name geranamine and included it in his own pre-workout product.

The drug has become a huge concern for athletes.  Astonishingly, more than 758 positive drug tests for methylhexaneamine have been reported by World-Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) labs since 2008, when the first positive was called.  The drug was not banned in 2008.  It was added to the WADA Prohibited List in 2009.  In 2012 alone there were 320 positive test results representing 7.1% of the 4,500 total WADA findings that year, placing behind only testosterone (T/E, 1,202 findings) and marijuana (398 findings). 

Some manufacturers defended methylhexaneamine, claiming it was geranium oil extract and thus of natural origin and present in the food supply prior to 1994, which would make it legal according to the definition of an ingredient in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994.  However, the natural origin of the DMAA used in supplements proved unfounded and the FDA has challenged its legality and safety for several years and considers the synthetic compound to be an illegal ingredient. 

Of primary concern is the potential for the compound to cause serious harm, and even death.  Sadly, Jack3D was implicated in the death of Claire Squires, a runner in the 2012 London marathon.

USP Labs has since reformulated the product and removed DMAA  as have other manufacturers.  Despite the significant attention and health risks, the original version of Jack3D continues to be available at Amazon.com.  The reformulated Advanced Formula Jack3D is also available, marketed differently, suggesting that the distinction between the two products is known.  Neither includes ingredient information on the site.

Craze is one of the second generation pre-workout products that began to proliferate when methylhexaneamine was addressed by authorities.  It was Bodybuilding.com’s New Supplement of the Year in 2012.  The Craze label says it contains Dendrobex™, a trademarked extract of dendrobium, an orchid.  The label suggests that several suspicious compounds are components of Dendrobex™: N,N-Diethyl-B-Phenylethylamine and N,N-Dimethyl-B-Phenylethylamine, a CAS registered compound that is .004 mass units away from methamphetamine.  Eventually, the compound present in Craze was shown to be a methamphetamine analog, N,α-diethylphenylethylamine, with no known natural presence.

USA Today, in its exhaustive reporting on Craze and its manufacturer Driven Sports, elicited a significant response from retailers in the dietary supplement industry.  Giants like Wal-Mart, eBay, and Bodybuilding.com have recently pulled the product, but not Amazon.com. As of October 20, Craze remained available from 8 Amazon sellers.

We conclude with perhaps the most amazing example of all, involving a new category of developing drugs called Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators, or SARMs for short.  SARMs are drugs that act like steroids by activating androgen receptors in the body.  SARMs are a relatively new category of drugs and thus many compounds are still in development and clinical trials where toxicity and safety are being evaluated.  One such drug is Ostarine, being developed for muscle wasting disease associated with cancer by a company called GT-X, under the name Enobosarm, GTx-024 and MK-2866. 

No need to wait for approval, it appears Ostarine is already for sale in dietary supplements at Amazon.com, IronMagLabs OstaRx and Cutting Edge Labs OstaMax are names that suggest the new SARM is an ingredient.  The label for OstaMax, included on Amazon.com, is astounding, stating, “FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY, NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION”, and yet there is a serving suggestion of one capsule daily!  The scientific name of Ostarine is on the label as is the MK-2866 naming convention used by GT-X.  Positive drug tests have already been seen with a female cyclist testing positive for Ostarine in June, and WADA reporting five SARMs as a whole in 2012.

The Amazon mission statement is “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”  Steroids, stimulants, drugs not approved for human consumption, and other potentially dangerous drugs, we hope, were not the intended aim of that mission.  Providing a marketplace for illegal compounds masquerading as dietary supplements in the face of international attention, consumer health concerns, and serious adverse events seems contrary to the customer-centric focus.  At the very least it is dangerous and irresponsible.

Global marketplaces like Amazon.com help set preferences across a variety of products, including dietary supplements.  We hope that Amazon becomes a real part of the solution by making the choice to eliminate these dangerous products instead of continuing to perpetuate their distribution.

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Amazon steroids not on Texas high school steroid testing lists

Many people have been discussing high school steroid testing and the effectiveness of the programs to control steroid use.  The largest such example, in fact one of the largest drug- testing programs in the world, is the University Interscholastic League (UIL) testing program in Texas.  

According to Jeff Miller’s article in the Dallas Morning News, “the Legislature initially funded the effort in 2007 with an annual budget of $3 million, but the allotment for the current school year is $750,000 – after a cut to $1 million a year earlier.” The statistics show 51,635 tests conducted from February 2008 through May 2010 with 21 positives for a positive rate of less than 0.0005% of the total.  The discussion over effectiveness, and indeed the utility of the money, rages and rightfully so. 

As the discussion continues, we reviewed the policies and the testing menu for potential sources of the issue and in hopes of addressing the problem that many believe remains.  Surprisingly, there are only ten steroids included in the testing panel according to information we reviewed from an Open Records Request, we will not list them here as we do not want to deleteriously impact the program.  Meanwhile, the UIL Anabolic Steroid List for 2010-11 is posted on its website and contains 36 anabolic steroids (33 actually as two are duplicate listings and one is not a known steroid under the name listed).  It lists those compounds “contained in section 481.104 of the Texas Health and Safety Code.”  

Unfortunately and of significant concern is that neither of these lists include steroids that until recently were available on Amazon.com.  A drug like methasterone, otherwise known as Superdrol, is not on either list.  It was for sale under the name CEL M-Drol on Amazon.com until we exposed it early this year.  After we helped break the story with Amy Shipley in the Washington Post on January 19, the product was removed from the site.  So too were CEL’s X-Tren and P-Plex, which contain the steroids ‘Tren’ and Madol as we described in our post on the topic.  Again, neither appears to be included on the lists governing UIL testing.  

For a program to be effective, it needs to test for the steroids that remain widely available, as they are one click away from the students.  If we are correct in our analysis of the lists and the program coverage then you could take any of the three products above and not test positive in the UIL program, and that is simply not acceptable.  Unfortunately, the options do not end with the CEL products.  Many other steroids remain for sale on Amazon.com and other online retailers today with names that are not included in the UIL program or other high school testing programs.  

We are certainly supporters of high school drug-testing programs and believe that they can be effective, even given the more limited per person high school testing budget.  The first step to that aim is to ensure the menu covers the new steroid options that continue to appear online daily.

Amazon sellers trafficking steroids, some classified as Schedule III Controlled Substances

With the attention paid to anabolic steroids and the threat they pose to sport and public health, it is amazing to discover that such products are for sale today at Amazon.com.  We focus here on Amazon.com and on methasterone and madol, two drugs that appear in two products for sale there, but it is important to realize this marketplace is only the tip of the iceberg.  Although some suggest that we should continue to allow free access to these products, our contention is that products like these that can cause liver failure and other significant harm should not be a mouseclick away from unsuspecting consumers, especially our youth where the harm can be greatly magnified.

The first drug is methasterone, otherwise known as methyldrostanolone, which became known under the name Superdrol in late 2005. Don helped expose it as a new designer steroid in an article by Amy Shipley published by the Washington Post Nov. 2005. Methasterone has been connected to cases of liver failure in several publications.  The chat rooms on the topic provide the user accounts and hammer home the issue; check out this graphic example, if you want.  The FDA issued a warning and took action against marketers of the product in March 2006.  The World Anti-Doping Agency added the compound to the Prohibited List for 2006.

Despite inclusion on the FDA and WADA lists, the DEA does not yet have methasterone on its list of Controlled Substances as of Sept. 15. M-Drol caught the eye of the FDA in late 2009 when the product was included on a list of 65 steroid products that Bodybuilding.com was distributing.  The FDA took action against some of the products and against Bodybuilding.com resulting in voluntary recall of the products from the site.  Nonetheless, methasterone appears to be widely available in the marketplace today in many forms including Competitive Edge Labs M-Drol.

This dangerous non-FDA approved drug can still be purchased from many mainstream retailers including through 7 Amazon Sellers at Amazon.com, as of Jan. 17.  Included in the marketing heading for the product is, “M-Drol-Anabolic Muscle Building Formula, 90ct (Compare To Superdrol).”  We decided to go ahead and do the comparison.

Competitive Edge Labs M-Drol was purchased through Amazon.com on Nov. 15 in an order fulfilled by Amazon Seller Surplus-Supplements.  We analyzed it in our ISO 17025-accredited lab and compared it to a reference standard of methasterone, or Superdrol, and in fact M-Drol does still contain methasterone.  The sale of methasterone or a drug like it would likely qualify as sale of an unapproved new drug, according to the FDA’s recent letter to industry from Dec. 15: “These products are illegal because they are unapproved new drugs under 21 U.S.C. §§ 321(p) and 355(a) and/or adulterated dietary supplements under 21 U.S.C. § 342.”

There is more clarity in the case of the second product, Competitive Edge Labs P-Plex, which contains the anabolic steroid Madol.   Madol is classified as a schedule III controlled substance by the DEA under the name desoxymethyltestosterone (no other names listed).

Madol was the second of two designer steroids discovered during the BALCO doping scandal in 2003. During the federal BALCO investigation, vials of the seized drugs were analyzed and characterized by Don and his team, then at the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory.  The drug that received the most notoriety was THG, short for tetrahydrogestrinone, a modified version of the already prohibited anabolic steroid gestrinone.  Madol was characterized later in 2004 and received much less publicity.  Madol was added to the Controlled Substance list Jan. 4. 2010 after a nearly two year process.

Madol has a proper scientific name of 17α-methyl-5α-androst-2-en-17β-ol.  The compound can be found under the following names; Madol, DMT, desoxymethyltestosterone, 17a-methyl-5a-androst-2-ene-17b-ol, 17a-methyl-etioallocholan-2-ene-17b-ol and other variations.

Despite its involvement in a high-profile case such as the BALCO investigation and inclusion on the controlled substance list, Madol appears in the dietary supplement marketplace in many forms.  It became popular under the name Phera-Plex and continues to be marketed in many products today.  Numerous options can be easily purchased on the Internet, including through Amazon.com.

Today at Amazon.com you will find Competitive Edge Labs P-Plex.  P-Plex was also included in the FDA action against Bodybuilding.com, yet it remains in stock and available through two Amazon Sellers as of Jan. 17. The marketing headline for P-Plex on Amazon.com reads, “P-Plex-Anabolic Muscle Building Formula 10mg, 90ct (Compare To Phera-Plex).”  We purchased the product on Jan. 6 through Amazon.com in an order fulfilled by Amazon Seller MMMPower and have identified Madol in the product.

The FDA considers this a serious matter and in a powerful letter to industry on December 15, 2010 wrote, “Responsible individuals and companies should be aware that the government may initiate criminal investigations to hold accountable those who violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) and endanger the public health. Responsible individuals, even if the individual did not participate in, encourage, or have personal knowledge of the violation, can be criminally prosecuted under the Act, pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 331. See United States v. Park, 421 U.S. 658 (1975). When the evidence warrants, felony charges may be appropriate.”

Knowingly or not, Amazon does appear to be providing a marketplace for selling steroids, some classified as controlled substances.  Amazon was willing to withdraw the pedophile’s guide in three weeks, as we pointed out in our blog post Nov. 12.  Hopefully, Amazon will hear the FDA on this matter and also voluntarily withdraw these steroid products from their website, sooner rather than later.  We stand ready to help Amazon or other retailers in maintaining a safe marketplace for dietary supplements in the future.  ##

FDA’s significant action is already reducing the number of steroids at some retailers

The Food and Drug Administration’s letter to industry sent Dec. 15 is one of the most important and commendable actions against the proliferation of anabolic steroids in the United States since the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004, as it comes with the promise of significant enforcement action.  Unfortunately, the Anabolic Steroid Control Act did not stem the widespread availability of steroids it merely ushered in a new era of designer steroids.  By providing a list of those that were “illegal,” it pushed the prohormone manufacturers to find new compounds or name old ones using obscure nomenclature to confuse the authorities.  This recent forceful FDA action has the potential to change the landscape and it is already seeing evidence of its effect, but there is a great deal of work to do.

The letter began as follows: “This letter addresses the significant public health problems posed by products that are marketed as dietary supplements but that contain the same active ingredients as FDA-approved drugs, analogs of the active ingredients in FDA-approved drugs, or other compounds, such as novel synthetic steroids, that do not qualify as dietary ingredients.”

It goes on to commit to serious enforcement. “Manufacturers, ingredient suppliers and distributors should not expect that a warning letter will be issued if FDA discovers potentially harmful violative ingredients in products marketed as dietary supplements. FDA recognizes that active ingredients at meaningful levels do not appear by accident in a product marketed as a dietary supplement – somewhere in the supply chain, the active ingredient is incorporated into the ingredient or the finished product. Actions that pose a risk to public health should expect a swift and strong agency response.”

The threat of significant and immediate action without any warning is what is needed to finally control the flow of these dangerous products.  This action is just in time as the situation was truly getting out of control.  An example using one retailer of such products demonstrates the problem and the effect of the FDA action.

When we first mentioned nutritionarsenal.com on Sept. 15 in our blog post, Despite numerous efforts to the contrary, prohormones remain widely available today, we found 84 products listed as prohormones.  As we noted on Dec. 12 in our blog post, New designer steroids appearing at an alarming rate, 15 new products in two months!, the explosion of such products was astounding as the number of prohormones listed had ballooned to 99!  We visited nutritionarsenal.com again today and were quite pleased to see the evidence of the FDA activity.  Today the number of prohormones offered is at 75 and dropping three weeks after the FDA letter, a clear sign that it is being taken seriously.

As we say, however, much work remains.  One of the most blatant examples comes in Competitive Edge Labs M-Drol product.  Although it was included in the FDA’s action against Bodybuilding.com in late 2009, it has remained for sale at a number of retailers since that time.  At nutritionarsenal.com, a new label has been added on the sales page for M-drol: “This item has been discontinued. All sales are FINAL,” another sign that the FDA letter, and perhaps our posts, have been effective.

FDA warns that tainted products marketed as dietary supplements are potentially dangerous – Anti-Doping Research’s Dietary Supplement Survey – A strategy in response

The Good, the Bad, and the Dirty in the Dietary Supplement Industry – Anti-Doping Research’s (ADR) Dietary Supplement Survey

Despite being widely available today, dietary supplements can contain unsafe and illegal substances that pose significant health risks to consumers.  Novel designer steroids, stimulants like ephedrine, pharmaceutically active ingredients like sibutramine, and other untested or unsafe ingredients continue to slip into the dietary supplement marketplace.  The FDA has responded with a significant and laudable new effort to work with the industry to combat the issue as described in, “FDA: Tainted Products Marketed as Dietary Supplements Potentially Dangerous.”  We would like to assist the effort through ADR’s Dietary Supplement Survey, for which we are currently raising financial support.

In ‘Tainted Body Building Products,” the FDA issued a warning that, “FDA cannot test all products on the market that contain potentially hidden ingredients.  Enforcement actions and consumer advisories for tainted products only cover a small fraction of the tainted over-the-counter products on the market.”  The numbers of tainted products are vast and the problems real.  According to the press release, “In recent years, FDA has alerted consumers to nearly 300 tainted products marketed as dietary supplements and received numerous complaints of injury associated with these products.”  Yet this is just a small fraction.  We would like to use our experience to help test and expose more, one of the primary goals of our Dietary Supplement Survey.

In the words of the FDA Commissioner, Margaret A. Hamburg, “These tainted products can cause serious adverse effects, including strokes, organ failure, and death.”  The dangers, as we know first-hand, are all too real, as we have dealt with numerous cases of acute liver injury in young adults who have used such products.  Colleagues such as Don Hooton have had lives forever changed by the suicide of a son using steroids to pursue athletic advancement.  Unfortunately, the issues are not isolated to body-building products as they span other categories like weight loss and sexual enhancement as well.  If such products are manufactured in the same facilities as legitimate supplements, the potential for contamination is also a concern.

In the FDA Letter to Industry, a fine point is made. “These products not only pose risks to consumers,” it states, “but undermine confidence in legitimately marketed dietary supplements in these and other categories.”  The majority of the dietary supplement industry produces products that do not contain illicit ingredients or contaminants and that should also be showcased.  In the letter, the “FDA is also seeking continued input and collaboration from the trade associations to educate the industry about this problem and to develop strategies to combat it.”

We believe that ADR’s Dietary Supplement Survey initiative could be such a strategy.  To sum up our goals:  We aim to explore which products are good, which products are bad, and which products exhibit contamination with low but potentially harmful levels of illicit ingredients.

More specifically, we will perform focused testing on problem categories to expose dangerous new products.  We will also conduct testing on a variety of randomly selected products to evaluate the prevalence of contamination and to demonstrate that the majority of products are indeed clean.  In the process, we will help audit the current retail environment to assist with enforcement and will characterize new supplement ingredients that have the potential to cause harm or lead to a positive drug test.  The results of our work will available via an interactive website portal complete with testing data, public service announcements and more.

As a public charity, Anti-Doping Research, a leader in performance-enhancing drug and toxicology research and testing, is working to raise $1.5 million to conduct the Dietary Supplement Survey.  We hope to gain broad support from a variety of sources to provide for a collective solution.  We have reached out to our friends in the dietary supplement community, the sporting community, anti-doping, collegiate and high school athletics, sporting sponsors, pharmaceutical companies and others in pursuit of support.  We would also welcome the involvement of the general public through volunteer activity or small contributions.  All donations are tax deductible.

If you have any questions, please contact us at 310-482-6925 or by e-mail at dcatlin@antidopingresearch.org or ocatlin@antidopingresearch.org.

Consumers, athletes and other elite professionals deserve a marketplace offering legitimate and safe dietary supplements.  With your help, we are confident that we can help make this happen.   Please join us and help support this important initiative with your contribution today.

Dietary supplement manufacturing and why designer steroids should matter to the general public

Perhaps you might think that you are far removed from the issues related to designer steroids.  Some see it as a problem for professional or Olympic sport to deal with but don’t see the issue influencing their daily lives.  Well, if you take dietary supplements on a regular basis, as more than half the population of the United States does, according to a recent Nielsen survey, designer steroids should matter to you.

Why, you might ask; I only take vitamins or herbs?  Well, the answer comes from the manufacturing process, which often occurs in co-packing facilities in the case of dietary supplements.  Co-packers simply mix and package the formulas provided by various supplement manufacturers and turn them into final products.  If your vitamin, protein powder, amino acid supplement or other product is processed in the same facility as one of the many designer steroids that continue to be produced you may have a problem.

A quick tour of a co-packer manufacturing facility illustrates the potential for contamination…

First, the raw materials are obtained and are warehoused for use.

The raw materials

The ingredients for a particular formula are then gathered and sent for measuring.

Gathering raw materials on pallet

The ingredients are weighed out according to the formula for the product.

Weighing the ingredients

The ingredients are combined in a huge blender to be mixed for hours.  If the blender is not completely cleaned and sanitized between mixes of different products, one can see how cross-contamination between products can occur.

The giant blender

If your protein powder is produced just after a designer steroid, one can see how cross-contamination might occur.    Many co-packers in the industry make an ethical choice not to participate in the manufacturing of dangerous products like designer steroids, but not all.  O.K., so there are regulations in place to protect against possible contamination of the finished products with potentially harmful unlabelled ingredients right?  Wrong.  (In fairness to the many competent and capable co-packers we should mention that we test products regularly from the facility shown above and have yet to find any contamination)

Certainly dietary supplement industry regulations have come a long way.  The phase-in of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) for dietary supplements over the last few years is likely to significantly improve quality of products as manufacturers are held to the new standards that CGMP dictate.  All manufacturers are now subject to CGMP, although the industry recognizes that the benefits will only be as good as the enforcement and auditing of the CGMP.

The new CGMP requirements, however, DO NOT include the need to test finished goods for contaminants such as designer steroids.  This is surprising given the prevalence of such compounds still today, even though they should be illegal to put in supplements.  CGMPs do require raw materials to be tested for purity prior to being formulated in the product and they also require testing for adulterants like arsenic or lead.

Some argue that purity checks will ensure that contaminants like designer steroids do not enter the marketplace.  However, if you explore the concept of purity testing and you realize that purity checks are often done at the microgram level, the problem is exposed.  Microgram testing is done at parts per million, testing for contaminants like designer steroids is usually done at the parts per billion level (nonograms).  Say you do a purity check on an ingredient and it comes back 99% pure after testing at the microgram level.  Well, how do you know the other 1% does not contain a hidden steroid, stimulant or otherwise unlabelled pharmaceutical ingredient? 

Is it O.K. if your protein powder, amino acid, or vitamin contains microgram quantities of a steroid or stimulant?  How does that magnify itself in your body with daily use of a protein powder where a serving size might be 100 grams, three times daily?  We don’t think that such contamination is acceptable as it could reach levels significant enough to lead to harm for a consumer.  Certainly, such levels of contaminants could cause positive drug tests for elite professionals like athletes or police officers; in fact, even contamination in the low parts per billion can lead to positive drug tests.

We would like to evaluate how prevalent contamination is in today’s supplement marketplace.  Nobody knows the scope of the issue since there are no requirements to test.  We want to survey the industry to characterize the issue through random sampling of a variety of products.  We also want to work to expose the bad products in the industry, like the new designer steroid options that continue to pop up daily.

If you are interested in such issues and would like to support our efforts to conduct a survey of products from the industry, please reach out to us at info@antidopingresearch.org or explore our Dietary Supplement Survey concept, which we are currently raising funding to conduct.  All contributions to our 501c3 public charity Anti-Doping Research are tax deductible.  We would welcome your support of this public-health initiative as we believe it will lead to improved consumer protection, better regulations, and much-needed improved quality control of dietary supplements.

New designer steroids appearing at an alarming rate, 15 new products in two months!

First, thank you to our friends, colleagues and all of you who have been reading our new blog.  We have enjoyed writing it and sharing some of our thoughts on important topics in a new and exciting forum.  We were not sure what to expect when starting this concept but have been pleasantly surprised by the readership.  We hope to keep you interested and inspired with our thoughts, and perhaps make a small impact on the relevant issues in the process.

We have noticed that many of you appear passionate about dietary supplements as we are.  We have worked for many years on issues related to such products and continue to do so today.  While the majority of manufacturers produce reputable supplements, there is a subset that continues to work around the current regulations and produce potentially dangerous products.

We have dealt first-hand with the dangers, which include numerous cases of serious liver failure caused by the uneducated or unintended use of powerful steroids.  Most of these occur in our youth, college or high school students looking for the body beautiful quick fix who stumble upon the wrong supplement on the Internet and cause serious harm to themselves.  Many of these come from methlyated steroids, which sadly remain widely available on the Internet today, despite the fact they are well known.

We focused on the issue in a previous post, Despite numerous efforts to the contrary, prohormones remain widely available today.  At that time one of the sites we visited, http://www.nutritionarsenal.com/Search.aspx, was selling 84 products listed as prohormones.  We visited the site again recently and found 99 products now listed as prohormones.  Amazingly, 15 new products that are likely illegal steroids or aromatase inhibitors in disguise have appeared on one website in two months time.  Sure, this is the holiday season of retail but this explosion seems ridiculous.  In a quick review, at least 75% of the 99 products appear to contain active ingredients that are likely powerful steroids.  That’s right: 75% contain steroids.

Some of these appear to be new compounds altogether, which we are exploring, but others are simply old steroids with new and confusing nomenclature.  A simple example with the compound methasterone, also known under the name Superdrol and Methylmasterdrol, explains the situation well.

Methasterone became popular several years ago.  The FDA deemed the compound to be a synthetic steroid and warned one of the companies that produced it.  The following is an excerpt from the March 8, 2006 FDA warning letter:

“This letter relates to your product Anabolic Xtreme Superdrol, containing the synthetic steroid methasteron. The product label and your Internet website, http://www.anabolicx.com, state that this product is “anabolic” and list methasteron as an ingredient. Further, your website includes statements about this product such as the following:

• “Many people have packed on pounds of lean mass and increased their strength while using this potent supplement . . . .”
• “The average user will gain between 6-10 pounds in as little as three weeks.”

Although Anabolic Xtreme Superdrol is not currently available on your website, where it is marked “Discontinued,” it is still being distributed in interstate commerce with a label that lists your firm name and website. The product label and your website represent this product as a dietary supplement. However, the product cannot be a dietary supplement because the active ingredient used in the product, methasteron, is not a vitamin, mineral, amino acid, herb or other botanical, or dietary substance for use by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake, nor is it a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of any dietary ingredient described above. Rather, it is a synthetic steroid. Consequently, methasteron is not a “dietary ingredient” as defined in Section 201(ff)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (the Act) [21 USC 321(ff)(1)], and your product is not a dietary supplement because it does not contain a dietary ingredient.”

The active compound present was 2a, 17a-Dimethylandrostane-3-one-17b-ol.  The compound on the label was written as 2a, 17a di methyl etiocholan-3-one-17b-ol.  The difference in terminology on the label can help to disguise the ingredient.  Interestingly, the compound does not seem to be on the DEA’s Controlled Substance list. 

One might think that this was the last we had seen of the compound methasterone in dietary supplements; afterall, the FDA considers it a synthetic steroid.  But, alas, this is not the case.  A quick look through the available products on nutritionarsenal.com finds many products that contain this compound on the label such as Competitive Edge Labs M-Drol, Extreme Performance Group Dianavar, Methastadrol and more.  It is rather shocking that although the FDA acted against one company in 2006 for selling the synthetic steroid methasterone, multiple other companies still appear to sell the same synthetic steroid today more than four years later.  Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Sadly, although many perhaps thought the era of designer steroids was behind us, the opposite seems true as the creation of new options only seems to be gaining ground.  While some, such as methasterone products, are well known, others will require resources to explore, characterize and regulate.  We look forward to participating in that process.