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Steroids disguised as dietary supplements
By A.J. Perez, USA TODAY
When federal authorities raided BALCO six years ago, investigators found the San Francisco Bay Area firm had supplied performance-enhancing drugs to a select roster of elite athletes.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs will explore the availability of banned substances — including those developed for BALCO — at health food stores in a hearing this afternoon.
"There are certain steroids and other drugs being masqueraded as dietary supplements," said U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart, one of four experts called to testify. "We're seeing the migration from clandestine labs where designer steroids were being produced for the elite-level athlete to these being distributed to the mainstream where high school and junior high school athletes have access to them."
The subcommittee is focusing on products that contain steroids or steroid precursors that are marketed as supplements, which make up a fraction of the $24 billion food supplement industry in the USA. The hearing was called by subcommittee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., a fan of the Philadelphia Phillies, a team that went without reliever J.C. Romero for 50 games this season after he tested positive for a banned substance linked to a testosterone-boosting supplement.
Tygart said legislation may be needed to close loopholes that allow products to go on the market without approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
Richard Kingham, a Washington-based lawyer who is also scheduled to testify, said consumers can be protected if the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration are given the resources to enforce the laws on the books now.
"This is a law enforcement issue," said Kingham, whose area of concentration is food and drug law.
Kingham said last week's raid of supplement dealer Bodybuilding.com is a prime example.
Over the last two years, 23 of 31 supplements purchased by FDA investigators from Bodybuilding.com contained anabolic steroids, according to a search warrant unsealed when the company's headquarters in Boise, was searched on Thursday.
Amanda Cheslock, spokeswoman for Bodybuilding.com, said the website does not manufacture the products and is cooperating with the investigation.
"We're glad the Congress is looking into this, because anything we can do to separate the legal, safe and healthy dietary supplement industry from the seedy, fly-by-night and unsafe world of illegal steroids is worthwhile," said Daniel Fabricant, interim executive director and CEO of the National Nutritional Foods Association. Fabricant will testify in front of the subcommittee.
Senate hearing targets steroids being sold as nutritional supplements
BY Nathaniel Vinton
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Updated Tuesday, September 29th 2009, 10:54 AM
A Senate hearing Tuesday examining the loopholes that have allowed the routine marketing and selling of anabolic steroids under the guise of nutritional supplementation will feature a mystery witness whose medical history could put a human face on the physical destruction such substances can cause.
A person who was seriously injured by supplements that were allegedly contaminated with steroids will attend the hearing, sitting behind one of the witnesses, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart. Senators could call upon the visitor to answer questions, even though the person was not as of Monday night listed on the official witness list for the hearing, entitled "Body Building Products and Hidden Steroids: Enforcement Barriers".
"Consumers need to know that there are real people out there who are injured by steroids masquerading as legitimate supplements," Tygart told the Daily News Monday night. "People need to see what an unfortunate thing it is when someone takes a product that's supposed to be helping them with their workouts and a few weeks after using the product they're in the hospital."
Large doses of steroids have been known to cause liver and kidney damage, as well as long-term sexual side effects, mood
disorders and heart problems.
The hearing, before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on crime and drugs, follows a summer-long federal crackdown on parts of the relatively unregulated nutritional supplement industry, with a series of raids led by some of the agents who drove the explosive BALCO investigation of steroids in sports, including Jeff Novitzky, a criminal investigator with the Food and Drug Administration.
According to court papers, the DEA is currently investigating Ergopharm, the supplement company that distributed the 6-OXO supplement, which allegedly triggered the positive drug test that led to a 50-game suspension for Philadelphia Phillies reliever J.C. Romero.
Critics of the supplement industry say it often provides a legitimate front for the sale of designer steroids. The Dietary Supplement Heath and Education Act of 1994 (commonly known as DSHEA) made it much easier for steroids to reach the open market through dietary supplements, which are classified as foods, not drugs. Some of the strongest supporters of DSHEA were senators who sit on the subcommittee that convened today's hearing.
Just last week, agents from the Food and Drug Administration executed a search warrant on the headquarters and warehouses of Bodybuilding.com, a popular Web site that the FDA accuses of selling five anabolic steroids - some of them exotic compounds like Madol, a designer steroid found in the raids on BALCO in 2003.
Tygart called Madol a "prime example" of "the migration of designer steroids from clandestine underground laboratories to being available in storefronts."
Besides Tygart, those witnesses expected to testify include top officials at the FDA and DEA, as well as an attorney with deep experience in FDA regulatory issues and the leader of a nutritional supplement trade group.
The appearance of the mystery witness echoes the appearance of an anonymous college athlete who testified at a 2004 Senate hearing on steroids in sports. Led in with a black cloth over his head and seated before a frosted glass partition, his voice electronically distorted to preserve his anonymity, the witness testified that steroids were "extremely available" at his school.
Steroids disguised as dietary supplements
By A.J. Perez, USA TODAY
When federal authorities raided BALCO six years ago, investigators found the San Francisco Bay Area firm had supplied performance-enhancing drugs to a select roster of elite athletes.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs will explore the availability of banned substances — including those developed for BALCO — at health food stores in a hearing this afternoon.
"There are certain steroids and other drugs being masqueraded as dietary supplements," said U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart, one of four experts called to testify. "We're seeing the migration from clandestine labs where designer steroids were being produced for the elite-level athlete to these being distributed to the mainstream where high school and junior high school athletes have access to them."
The subcommittee is focusing on products that contain steroids or steroid precursors that are marketed as supplements, which make up a fraction of the $24 billion food supplement industry in the USA. The hearing was called by subcommittee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., a fan of the Philadelphia Phillies, a team that went without reliever J.C. Romero for 50 games this season after he tested positive for a banned substance linked to a testosterone-boosting supplement.
Tygart said legislation may be needed to close loopholes that allow products to go on the market without approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
Richard Kingham, a Washington-based lawyer who is also scheduled to testify, said consumers can be protected if the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration are given the resources to enforce the laws on the books now.
"This is a law enforcement issue," said Kingham, whose area of concentration is food and drug law.
Kingham said last week's raid of supplement dealer Bodybuilding.com is a prime example.
Over the last two years, 23 of 31 supplements purchased by FDA investigators from Bodybuilding.com contained anabolic steroids, according to a search warrant unsealed when the company's headquarters in Boise, was searched on Thursday.
Amanda Cheslock, spokeswoman for Bodybuilding.com, said the website does not manufacture the products and is cooperating with the investigation.
"We're glad the Congress is looking into this, because anything we can do to separate the legal, safe and healthy dietary supplement industry from the seedy, fly-by-night and unsafe world of illegal steroids is worthwhile," said Daniel Fabricant, interim executive director and CEO of the National Nutritional Foods Association. Fabricant will testify in front of the subcommittee.
Senate hearing targets steroids being sold as nutritional supplements
BY Nathaniel Vinton
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Updated Tuesday, September 29th 2009, 10:54 AM
A Senate hearing Tuesday examining the loopholes that have allowed the routine marketing and selling of anabolic steroids under the guise of nutritional supplementation will feature a mystery witness whose medical history could put a human face on the physical destruction such substances can cause.
A person who was seriously injured by supplements that were allegedly contaminated with steroids will attend the hearing, sitting behind one of the witnesses, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart. Senators could call upon the visitor to answer questions, even though the person was not as of Monday night listed on the official witness list for the hearing, entitled "Body Building Products and Hidden Steroids: Enforcement Barriers".
"Consumers need to know that there are real people out there who are injured by steroids masquerading as legitimate supplements," Tygart told the Daily News Monday night. "People need to see what an unfortunate thing it is when someone takes a product that's supposed to be helping them with their workouts and a few weeks after using the product they're in the hospital."
Large doses of steroids have been known to cause liver and kidney damage, as well as long-term sexual side effects, mood
disorders and heart problems.
The hearing, before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on crime and drugs, follows a summer-long federal crackdown on parts of the relatively unregulated nutritional supplement industry, with a series of raids led by some of the agents who drove the explosive BALCO investigation of steroids in sports, including Jeff Novitzky, a criminal investigator with the Food and Drug Administration.
According to court papers, the DEA is currently investigating Ergopharm, the supplement company that distributed the 6-OXO supplement, which allegedly triggered the positive drug test that led to a 50-game suspension for Philadelphia Phillies reliever J.C. Romero.
Critics of the supplement industry say it often provides a legitimate front for the sale of designer steroids. The Dietary Supplement Heath and Education Act of 1994 (commonly known as DSHEA) made it much easier for steroids to reach the open market through dietary supplements, which are classified as foods, not drugs. Some of the strongest supporters of DSHEA were senators who sit on the subcommittee that convened today's hearing.
Just last week, agents from the Food and Drug Administration executed a search warrant on the headquarters and warehouses of Bodybuilding.com, a popular Web site that the FDA accuses of selling five anabolic steroids - some of them exotic compounds like Madol, a designer steroid found in the raids on BALCO in 2003.
Tygart called Madol a "prime example" of "the migration of designer steroids from clandestine underground laboratories to being available in storefronts."
Besides Tygart, those witnesses expected to testify include top officials at the FDA and DEA, as well as an attorney with deep experience in FDA regulatory issues and the leader of a nutritional supplement trade group.
The appearance of the mystery witness echoes the appearance of an anonymous college athlete who testified at a 2004 Senate hearing on steroids in sports. Led in with a black cloth over his head and seated before a frosted glass partition, his voice electronically distorted to preserve his anonymity, the witness testified that steroids were "extremely available" at his school.
