Press Release regarding nutritional supplements
May 01, 2010The Cyprus Anti-Doping Authority (CyADA), in its mission to protect athletes from inadvertent doping, announces today that in two different nutritional supplements an emerging drug candidate, namely Growth-Hormone-Releasing Peptide-2 (GHRP-2), has been detected, for the first time.
GHRP-2, as a releasing factor of human Growth Hormone (hGH), belongs to the list of substances prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and therefore its use by athletes can cause a positive result at a doping control. It is worth noting that this is the first time releasing hormones in nutritional supplements have been detected, thus marking a new dimension in the fight against doping, from both the nutritional supplements and the analytics in doping controls perspectives. Apart from the risk of doping, several health concerns arise from the use of nutritional supplements containing GHRP-2. As a drug, GHRP-2 is still undergoing clinical trials and its use as a pharmaceutical agent is not approved which means that the relevant pharmaceutical authorities are not yet convinced of its safety and/or efficacy. The first product of GHRP-2, provided as tablets, was purchased in Cyprus by CyADA while the second, in liquid solution, was confiscated by CyADA in collaboration with the relevant authorities of the Cyprus Ministry of Health and the Cyprus Police. Both products are available over-the-counter, not only in Cyprus, but in many other countries, all over the world. The identification and quantification of GHRP-2 in the nutritional supplements was achieved by scientists at the Center for Preventive Doping Research at the German Sport University Cologne with the support of the German Ministry of the Interior; the Manfred Donike Institute; and CyADA.