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The French Anti-Doping Agency worked with pharmaceutical companies to develop tests for CERA -- a form of the blood-booster EPO -- which led to four cyclists testing positive on the 2008 Tour and several athletes at the Beijing Olympics in the same year.
But Fahey expressed fears that unlicensed products flooding the market are getting out of control, and that drug companies have an even greater role to play in helping stop the flow.
"Detecting what might be performance-enhancing at an early stage," he said. "Eliminating doping in sport, right down to our fitness centers right around the world. We always talk about the elite, but the problem is far more widespread."
Rogge agreed that the anti-doping fight must go further than catching the cheating athlete.
"Corruption in sports invariably implicates other forms of corruption. Sophisticated doping often implicates organized crime networks which operate beyond national borders," Rogge said. "We need help from governments, but also those who are there to apply the law, scientists, the medical community, coaches and the pharmaceutical industry."
Rogge called for more out-of-competition tests to "detect cheats even before they arrive" at events.
"Doping cartels are constantly seeking new ways to avoid detection and they always seek new substances," Rogge said. "It is heartening to see that several pharmaceutical industries have contributed to anti-doping efforts."
Philip Thomson, vice president for global communications at GlaxoSmithKaline, said he hopes his company is joined by others in helping WADA identify areas where it can catch drug cheats, even though confidentiality becomes a sensitive issue when sharing information.
"It is a challenge, there's no doubt about it," he said. "But it's also inevitable that we will have to work with other companies ... We work with over 55 countries externally to discover new medicines."
Howman said sport at all levels -- professional or amateur -- has the potential to interest illegal markets.
"The increasing engagement of the criminal underworld in providing banned substances, the incentive to engage in trafficking remains very high," Howman said. "The substances they attain are raw materials delivered from the east and put together in kitchen laboratories, unregulated and unsanitized ... that should be of a major concern to all governmental authorities."
Drug trafficking in the underworld is linked to the same criminals involved in "money laundering, corruption, betting and fraud," Howman said.
[Associated
Press;
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