New study forces delay in biathlon meldonium cases

The International Biathlon Union (IBU) has delayed doping rulings regarding meldonium while they wait for the results of a new study into how long it takes the drug to leave the body.

Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova was the highest-profile athlete to test positive for meldonium, which was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) banned list at the start of the year, during the Australian Open.

Ukrainian biathletes Olga Abramova and Artem Tyshchenko joined an increasingly long list of more than 120 athletes to have tested positive for the substance, but have only been provisionally suspended, with the study results expected by September.

At the March 30 hearing into the cases of Abramova and Tyshchenko, the IBU said that a pilot study into how long meldonium takes to leave a person's system was in conflict with the standard point of view.

"The matter of how long it may take for meldonium to be excreted from the body was essential, as the results of a pilot study conducted by the expert called by the panel contradicted the present state of literature on meldonium," the IBU said in a statement released on Wednesday.

"The proceedings are suspended until the results of the scientific studies already initiated by WADA-accredited laboratories on the long-term pharmacokinetics of meldonium of healthy humans are available."

If other sports' governing bodies choose to go down a similar route, then many other hearings, including the impending one for Sharapova, could be put back until the WADA studies are completed.
Source: AFP