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Scientists find new designer steroid
Duncan Mackay Wednesday February 2, 2005 The Guardian Scientists at the World Anti-Doping Agency have discovered a new designer anabolic steroid designed specifically to evade drugs tests, fulfilling the prophecy made last year by Victor Conte. The founder and owner of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, who allegedly distributed the first designer anabolic steroid tetrahydrogestrinone or THG, had claimed a new drug was already in production. "You think it's over just because they've indicted me?" he had said. "Please. There's a new version out there right now." His claim has been confirmed by the identification of another hitherto undetectable substance called desoxymethyltestosterone (DMT). The new steroid would have a similar impact to testosterone if used, increasing strength, muscle bulk and stamina. "Following the THG story, this is the second designer steroid we have found," Wada's scientific director Olivier Rabin said from Montreal. "We believe this was created purely for doping in sport."
Just as in the discovery of THG, officials were alerted to the existence of this new drug by a whistleblower; this time it was an anonymous emailer who alerted Wada to the seizure. Wada and professor Christiane Ayotte, the head of the Wada-accredited laboratory in Montreal, worked with Canadian customs scientists who had seized it at the border with the United States last July to determine that it was a new form of performance-enhancing steroid. Ayotte said retests of stored urine samples taken from athletes in recent months showed no trace of the drug and she believes it was caught before it went into general circulation. "This puts us ahead of the dopers," claimed Rabin. The new drug is the most complex substance yet discovered by testers and is several generations ahead of THG. Even officials expressed an element of admiration at the cleverness of its creation. "THG was a modification of gestrinone [a female fertility drug] by a simple one-step reaction," Ayotte said. "But in this case we know, because we exactly reproduced the way they made this product, that it is at a level of sophistication that we have not seen before. "We now have chemists with a very serious organic chemistry background helping these people distribute these things to athletes." Because this synthetic steroid lingers in the liver without breaking down, however, it is potentially highly damaging. "They used chemicals that are very dangerous," said Ayotte. "They are highly flammable when exposed to the air and toxic. There was no purification." The discovery of this new drug indicates that THG was almost certainly the result of sustained development and not just the invention of an amateur scientist who got lucky. "This proves that THG was not a one-off," said Rabin. "This new substance has been discovered so quickly after THG because we learned some lessons from the THG story. This shows them how serious we are." The cloak-and-dagger contest between the testers and rogue scientists is increasingly fascinating. Many are returning to steroids manufactured nearly 50 years ago to try to fool the testers. By altering the pharmacological make-up of some drugs it is possible to avoid them showing up in tests or sometimes the substance is so old that they have simply been forgotten. Such a case happened in 2003 when Dr Don Catlin, the head of the Los Angeles Wada-accredited laboratory, suspected that Tammy Thomas, an American cyclist who had won a silver medal in the 2001 world championships, was using illegal drugs but was perplexed by her test results. After some research Catlin discovered she was using norethandrolone, a drug developed in the 1960s to help undersized men but never released after inconclusive clinical trials. Thomas was banned from cycling for life. Catlin and Ayotte are at the forefront of the fight against doping in sport. It was Catlin who identified and developed a test for THG and now Ayotte has struck another blow. The source for the manufacturer of these illegal drugs is suspected to be laboratories in China or India. The FBI uncovered evidence during its investigation into Conte that THG started life at a plant in Hangzhou, China, where it is easy to obtain all the raw materials needed to make designer steroids. It is probably a similar story with DMT. "The universe of these people is large," said Catlin. "The world is big. Who knows what goes on in the nooks and crannies?" New performance-enhancing steroid stopped in its tracks
Drug dubbed DMT seized at Coutts border
Bill Beacon
MONTREAL - The World Anti-Doping Agency, in uncovering a new designer steroid dubbed Desoxy-Methyl Testosterone or DMT, hopes it is a step ahead of athletes who cheat. The Canada Border Services Agency, formerly Canada Customs, seized a bottle of the drug at the Canada-U.S. border at Coutts in December 2003. An anonymous e-mailer alerted WADA to the seizure and the organization worked with federal government scientists to determine it was a new form of performance-enhancing steroid.
"We believe that this one, DMT, hasn't been used and that we are, in this case, ahead of the dopers," said Olivier Rabin, director of science for WADA.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, speaking at a news conference in Vancouver, agreed, adding that anti-doping authorities must be vigilant against cheaters.
"The discovery by WADA is a very good thing," said Rogge. "For me that leads to two conclusions. One, we have to continue to invest heavily into scientific research. Secondly ... WADA and the Olympic movement have to have more intelligence and have to know what's really going on.
"The fight against doping will be eternal. This we know but we are prepared for that."
Christiane Ayotte, director of the WADA-accredited doping lab in Montreal, said re-tests of stored urine samples taken from athletes in recent months showed no trace of the drug and she believes it was caught before it went into general circulation.
Further tests are underway to determine the exact properties and effects of DMT, but the structure of the molecule has been established and dope-testing centres around the world have been alerted to the drug, she added.
There are no plans yet to re-test samples taken at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, she said.
Rabin said re-tests may be done if further new drugs are discovered. DMT appears to be a new generation of steroid from THG, the muscle-building compound discovered in 2003 that sparked a federal inquiry in the United States into the Balco Laboratory, the suspected source of the drug. "It has been modified obviously to make it undetectable," Ayotte said, although she added it probably would have been caught by drug testers because of its methyl testosterone signature.
However, the complexity of the drug and the process needed to produce it suggests it was made by trained chemists with access to sophisticated lab facilities.
"THG was a modification by a simple, one-step chemical reaction," she said. "But in this case, it's a several-step synthesis and they have used chemical reactions that are very dangerous.
"What it tells us is that we have a chemist with a very serious organic chemistry background helping the people who distribute steroids to athletes."
She said it was not known who produced the drug or who was to receive it, adding it was under investigation by Canadian and U.S. authorities. "If that person is an athlete or coach, it is a doping-related offence," she said.
She also could not name the whistle-blower who alerted WADA.
New 'stealth' steroid exposed
BY T.J. QUINN
When Canadian customs officials stopped a vehicle crossing from Sweetgrass, Mont., to Coutts, Alberta in December 2003, they had no idea what vials of an oily, clear substance were. But after government scientists started examining the liquid, and then got together with colleagues from the World Anti-Doping Agency seven months later, they realized they had discovered a second "designer" steroid, a drug manufactured specifically to boost athletic performance and avoid detection.
But unlike THG, the drug that rocked track and field, the NFL and Major League Baseball, "DMT" might have been discovered before anyone had a chance to use it.
"We have reason to believe that this (drug) has not been used, at least in the samples we have analyzed," said Christiane Ayotte, director of the Olympic Lab in Montreal and the head of the team of scientists that identified the new steroid. "Potentially, we are ahead of the dopers."
WADA officials announced the new drug, desoxymethyl-testosterone, during a press conference in Montreal yesterday. DMT is the first "stealth" steroid scientists have unveiled publicly since the discovery of THG in October 2003. THG, tetra-hydrogestrinone, is the drug at the center of the U.S. government's case against BALCO labs in California. Scientists said they believe they have discovered several other designer steroids, but have not yet identified the molecular construction. Now that they have identified DMT, they said, any anti-doping lab should be able to test for it. Ayotte said she still has not done enough research to determine all of DMT's qualities, but said she suspects it might have the unintended effects of being toxic yet ineffective because of the changes made to the base drug, testosterone.
While speaking in French during the bilingual teleconference, she said: "Anyone who takes the drug would be extremely stupid."
Scientists from the Canada Border Services Agency's lab were able to identify the substance as some sort of testosterone, but couldn't identify the molecular structure.
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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
