A Canadian doctor who has treated many N.F.L. players as well as Olympic medalists like Donovan Bailey and the world’s top golfer, Tiger Woods, is under criminal investigation in the United States. He is suspected of providing athletes with performance-enhancing drugs, according to several people who have been briefed on the investigation.
The F.B.I. investigation of Dr. Anthony Galea, a sports medicine specialist who has treated hundreds of professional athletes across many sports, follows his arrest on Oct. 15 in Toronto by the Canadian police. Human growth hormone and Actovegin, a drug extracted from calf’s blood, were found in his medical bag at the United States-Canada border in late September. Using, selling or importing Actovegin is illegal in the United States.
Dr. Galea is also being investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for smuggling, advertising and selling unapproved drugs as well as criminal conspiracy. He is tentatively scheduled to appear in a Canadian courtroom on Friday.
I hadn't previously heard of Actovegin, here's a brief description taken from it's product insert :
Actovegin® is a Deproteinized Hemoderivative of Calf Blood that is obtained by ultra-filtration. The Deproteinized Hemoderivative of Calf Blood contains only physiological components, anorganic substances socle as electrolytes and essential trace elements and 30% of organic components as amino acids, oligopeptides, nucleosides, intermediary products of the carbohydrate and of the fat metabolism, and components of the cellular membranes as glycosphingolipids. One of the physiologic components of Actovegin® is inositol phospho-oligosaccharides ( IPOs ). These compounds are thought to possess central and peripheral insulin effects, suggesting that a therapeutic benefit could be obtained in disorders of impaired glucose utilization. The molecular weight of the organic components is below 6000 Dalton.
Pharmacodynamics:
The active components in Actovegin® promote glucose uptake by cerebral and skeletal muscle and other cells and stimulate intrinsic glucose transport by regulating glucose carrier GluT1; Actovegin® activates piruvate-dehydrogenase (PDH) and thereby leads to increased utilization of glucose by cells and formation of energy-rich substances ("insulin-like·effect). (Oberermaier-Kusser et al. 1989;) Actovegin® also increases uptake and utilization of oxygen by hypoxic tissues and cells (which can be proven by Warburg's test) via promoting mitochondrial respiratory function and decreases formation of lactate, as a result, it protects hypoxic tissue. (Machicao, 1993; Kununaka et al. 1991)
Sounds pretty nasty to me :-(
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