Roche Boasts About Catching Sports Cheats
5 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // October 8th, 2008 // 3:36 pm
The drugmaker is trying to bolster its image after two more bicyclists tested positive for using its Mircera anemia medication, which some athletes apparently use to increase their stamina.
Three stage winners in the Tour de France - Stefan Schumacher of Germany and Italy’s Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli - have been caught cheating with the drug, which is an advanced version of EPO. Schumacher (pictured left) and Piepoli were exposed Monday, the Associated Press reports. (Another cyclist was caught last summer).
Roche, in fact, says it has been collaborating with the World Doping Agency to help catch cheats since 2004. And now the International Olympic Committee plans to retest samples taken from athletes in all sports at the recent Beijing Games to search for traces of the drug.
Mircera is effective for longer periods than EPO, and half the active substance still works in the body 134 hours after a dose, compared with 40 hours for EPO. Of course, this makes it easier to detect.
Debt Reduction
Ed, doping and bicycling are synomyms. You cannot have one without the other. How our champ, who I understand is coming out of retirement for one more run in France, does it, without getting caught is the trick!
Gretchen
This is brilliant. Good for Roche and the WDA; they have every right to boast.
Al Wasilewski
Gee Ed, why is it that when a company factually responds to questions about a positive action — in this case cooperating with authorities to prevent inappropriate use of its products — you have to refer to it as an attempt at improving its image? The fact is that we were approached by various news organizations, who learned that we were cooperating with authorities through their own sources, and asked for us to comment.
Al Wasilewski
Roche
ed silverman
Hi Al,
First, I wasn’t disparaging Roche’s efforts. Second, the company is boasting - it’s a ‘good news’ moment and Roche saw fit to take advantage of it. Nothing wrong with that. And from Roche’s point of view, this does burnish its image in the process. Right? I think you’re reading too much into the headline, though, in so far as that I’m not trying to suggest anything negative about Roche’s actions.
Cheers
ed
Doug Bremner MD
Well, you guys must be doing something right because I remember Roche being listed as one of the most evil corporations in the world because of price fixing of vitamins at one point but you are no longer on the list.
http://healthyparenting.net/blog/2006/12/24/the-14-most-evil-corporations-according-to-global-exchange/
Caterpillar is at the top for selling bulldozers to Israel which they use to plow down homes in the West Bank, followed by Chevron.