March 15, 2016 (Ottawa, ON) – The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) would like to remind Canadian athletes of the importance of checking their medications against the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) 2016 Prohibited List, which came into effect on January 1.

There have been recent reports of a wave of Russian athletes returning positive tests for meldonium (mildronate). Meldonium is made by a Latvian pharmaceutical company and is sold in Russia and former Soviet countries, as an anti-ischemia medication. Neither Health Canada nor the Food and Drug Administration (in the United States) has approved meldonium for use. In 2015, it was on WADA’s monitoring program. In 2016, it was added to the Prohibited List because of evidence of its use by athletes with the intention of enhancing performance.

These recent cases serve as a strong reminder to athletes of their responsibility to check the status of their medications regularly. Athletes are responsible for any prohibited substance found in their sample.

Athletes can verify the prohibited status of their medication(s) using the following CCES resources:

Global DRO: www.globaldro.com
Email substances@cces.ca
Info Line: 1-800-672-7775
For prohibited substances that require a medical exemption, athletes subject to doping control should consult the CCES or their international federation to get complete information on the application process.

The CCES Medical Exemption Wizard (www.cces.ca/medical-exemptions) can help athletes find out if they need to apply for an exemption for their prescribed medication(s), what to include in it and where to submit the application.
Email tue-aut@cces.ca

Further reading:

WADA Publishes 2016 Prohibited List here.
The 2016 WADA Prohibited List came into Effect on January 1, 2016 here.