Japan has become the latest country to join the Global Drug Reference Online (Global DRO) network, providing more athletes than ever before with the opportunity to benefit from easily accessible and accurate information about the status of their medications.
Global DRO is a tool available online and on mobile devices originally created through a partnership between the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the UK Anti-Doping (UKAD), and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) to allow athletes to check the prohibited or permitted status of licensed medication according to the latest World Anti-Doping Code Prohibited List. In 2012, there were more than 314,000 inquires between the three initial partner countries, speaking to the popularity and effectiveness of the resource.
Now, athletes based in Japan will be able to check the status of specific substances purchased in their home country as the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) has become part of the Global DRO system. The benefits of the new partnership extends to athletes and support personnel from the UK, USA or Canada, who can now check the status of any medication purchased in Japan, as well see the top searches performed.
Athletes are advised to check on Global DRO before taking any medication by simply typing the name of the product in to the search engine, where they will receive information on whether the substance is prohibited or permitted, both in and out of competition.
“Global cooperation is a vital part of the success of any anti-doping organization,” said USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart. “We want athletes to have access to as much information as possible about their rights and responsibilities, and we are excited to work with our fellow partners to expand this network so that an even greater number of athletes can benefit from this simple system that provides accurate information about the status of their medications and helps them become more informed consumers.”
“Joining the global platform is significant for our athletes, their support personnel and sports pharmacists. This will provide us a good opportunity to share information with our colleagues from the UK, USA and Canada and JADA is able to ensure that all competing athletes can feel more comfortable by checking the substances on the Prohibited List and products in conjunction with the direct approach to JADA sports pharmacists,” said Shin Asakawa, CEO of JADA. “We would like to continue working with the Global DRO partners and making the search engine in Japanese more comprehensive.”
“It is great to see Global DRO expanding to include Japan. All athletes in Japan can now instantly check whether any medication contains substances banned on the Prohibited List,” said UK Anti-Doping Chief Executive Andy Parkinson. “The expansion of Global DRO is a great illustration of how anti-doping organizations can work together to better support our clean athletes.”
“As one of the founding partners, we are pleased to see Japan joining Global DRO and we encourage other national anti-doping agencies to join as well,” says Paul Melia, President and CEO of the CCES. “As more countries’ drugs are added to the database, there is an exponential benefit for athletes that train and compete internationally: a single, consistent source for this critical information.”
USADA is responsible for the testing and results management process for athletes in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movement, and is equally dedicated to preserving the integrity of sport through research initiatives and educational programs.
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