Astellas Pharma and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have agreed to partner to prevent the misuse and abuse of medicines for doping in sports. Doping in sports relies primarily on the misuse and abuse of commercially available medicines as well as compounds in development that are not as well-known or easily detected.

To support WADA in its efforts to address this issue, Astellas will identify compounds solely developed by Astellas or its affiliates with the potential for sport-related doping abuse and will cooperate in sharing relevant information to aid WADA in the organization’s development of detection methods for these compounds. Additionally, Astellas will cooperate with WADA to minimize the risk of misuse of compounds with doping potential during clinical trials to avoid opportunities for abuse.

Astellas’ activities are aligned with recent guidance published by WADA and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies increase their role in the fight against sport-related doping. The guidance includes best practices on establishing a voluntary process for determining the potential doping risk of compounds in their development pipelines before they are commercially available.

The guidance is an extension of the Joint Declaration on Cooperation in the Fight Against Doping that was signed by IFPMA and WADA in July 2010, and endorsed by the global Biotechnology Industry Organization in June 2011, to combat the latest doping techniques.

Source: Astellas