Here’s a great Daily News article explaining how actovegin is seen in sports medicine circles as an aid to doping. As writer Nate Vinton says:
“Actovegin may not be a banned substance in pro sports, but according to experts, the mysterious product is thought to be an accessory to the crime of doping.
The Swiss-made calf’s blood derivative, which Canadian doctor Tony Galea is charged with supplying, is monitored by the World Anti-Doping Agency because WADA’s scientists believe it might be used in conjunction with other banned drugs or banned methods.
“If you look at the doping practice, there are different substances or products which are used in support of it,” says WADA’s science director Olivier Rabin, one of the world’s foremost experts on the pharmacology of doping.
Rabin says Actovegin could be used a component of sophisticated blood doping methods, in which athletes withdraw, manipulate, and re-inject their blood to boost their endurance, or in conjunction with the use of erythropoietin, or EPO. It’s similar in principle to taking a lot of iron – which is not banned, but helps make banned drugs work.
“If you take EPO and you are depleted in iron, EPO is not going to get the endurance-boosting effect,” said Rabin.
Actovegin is rich in iron, manganese, amino acids, and other nutrients that are important in achieving the physiological transformations that dopers are seeking to achieve.”
Moreover, in a second article, Tiger Woods doctor may face charges in Florida:
“According to a Florida Department of Health spokesman, the agency has turned over information from media reports about Canadian physician Tony Galea’s controversial medical treatment of Tiger Woods to investigators in its Unlicensed Activity department.
Although the DOH spokesman would not confirm or deny that an investigation into Galea was underway, “Florida statutes provides that the practice of medicine or an attempt to practice medicine without a license to practice in Florida is a felony of the third degree.”
