Posted on behalf of Heidi Ledford

While the Tour de France struggles to overcome the bad press from its rampant doping problems, things aren’t looking too good for the upcoming summer Olympics. According to an article in the BBC, the labs that test for recombinant EPO (erythropoietin) may be misclassifying some positive drug tests as negative.

EPO is produced by the body and helps crank out new red blood cells. The dopers who sneak a little extra can get more oxygen to their muscles. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) ran into trouble a few years back because in rare instances, the recombinant EPO test can produce a false positive result (they discuss the problem here).

Now it seems we may have the opposite problem: the BBC cites Rasmus Damsgaard, a physician who runs the anti-doping program for the Astana Cycling team (see interview with Cycling News here) and the International Ski Federation, who says that he sent samples for EPO testing and all came back clean. Damsgaard asked to see the raw data and says that some tests looked suspicious although they didn’t fit the WADA’s strict criteria for a positive test. Cue other experts who say that WADA tests won’t catch all of the various formulations of EPO being made (the BBC says there are up to 80), and that WADA needs to broaden their criteria in declaring a positive result. “WADA is sitting on a mountain of EPO,” Damsgaard asserts.

Meanwhile, Chemistry World points out that a new test for human growth hormone won’t be ready in time for use during the summer games. The test measures two protein biomarkers, IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1) and P-III-P (procollagen type III peptide), but the test for IGF-1 is no longer sold commercially and WADA has yet to develop their own. Both stories paint a picture of an agency that is struggling between catching as many cheaters as possible while avoiding the troublesome image and legal problems that come from false accusations.