Quick Dips

Cleanup on Sports Drugs

In the face of mounting international concern over illicit drug use in sports and increasingly sophisticated methods of concealment, Kiwi company B Dent Global (BDG) aims to help make the Sydney 2000 Olympics the cleanest games ever.

The Lower Hutt-based scientific research company has become a key player in the field of specialty organic chemicals used in the detection of illegal drug use. After focusing for the past decade on offshore niche markets demanding custom-made organic chemicals, the company now exports 80% of its output.

Along with the US employment market, where testing for drugs is commonplace, the race to keep pace with illegitimate drug use in sports is a feature of BDG's activities. Its most recent challenge has been to develop detection materials not previously found in an Olympic drug testing programme. BDG has been given preferred supplier status by the Australian Government to assist in the identification of any drug found in the urine of the athletes at the Sydney Olympics.

The company will provide nearly half of all testing compounds used at the Sydney Olympics. These will enable scientists to even out the cat and mouse game played in detecting steroid and drug use, by providing them with known references to analyse samples from athletes. While steroids have been around for a number of years, many have not had scientific analysis to determine how they show up when metabolised in the body, and some have been used undetected.

Although the project is in the early stages, with more than a year to run, the company is confident the outcome will recoup the R&D costs several times over. In the meantime, Dr Dennis Page, a New Zealand scientist recruited back from Australia for the project under the Graduates in Industry Fellowships Programme, says he is making good progress in researching and formulating compounds capable of detecting drug residues in athletes' urine.