Research Update with William Llewellyn

[HawaiianPride.]

Anabolic Research Update

By William Llewellyn

DEA Alert: Steroid Candies

In a recent bulletin to law enforcement (Microgram Bulletin Vol. 42 #11), the Drug Enforcement Administration advises agents to be on the lookout for steroid -containing candies. The sample candies were submitted to the DEA Northeast Laboratory for analysis, which confirmed the presence of stanozolol .

The DEA Microgram Bulletin is a brief monthly newsletter that shows pictures and lab reports on various seized black market drug samples. They report unusual findings, such as new smuggling/concealment techniques, novel narcotic preparations, and the chemical makeup of counterfeit/adulterated drug samples. The DEA reports that this is the first finding of stanozolol-containing candies. Given the fear many parents already have of teen steroid use , a report like this is (of course) exactly what the media needs to spark a new emotional discussion about kids and steroids .

In reviewing the DEA bulletin, one notices that the accompanying photograph is of a labeled product, which bears the name "Stanozolol Troches." There is a labeled dosage as well, 50 mg. The troches are pink and square, and scored into quarters, perhaps so they can be broken into smaller dosages. They sit in a pink plastic box, with a manufacturer listed on the outside, namely Treasure Coast Pharmacy.

Treasure Coast is a fairly well-known compounding pharmacy in Florida. Compounding pharmacies produce drugs on direct order of physicians, and are usually contracted when the dose, concentration, inert ingredients, availability, or some other property of traditional pharmacy medicines are unable to optimally treat the patient. As such, it is expected that a compounded medicine would be found in a non-traditional format.

I contacted Treasure Coast Pharmacy about the DEA bulletin. The gentleman who answered the phone was very forthcoming, and confirmed that Stanozolol Troches was a product manufactured by their company. He stated that they produce the item in a variety of different strengths, depending on what the physician requires (usually ranging from 10 mg to 50 mg per troche). He also explained they were dissolved in the mouth as a lozenge (lozenge is another word for troche), though the definition of a "candy" appears to be somewhat of a stretch.

On a side note, this represents a slightly different method of delivery than traditional tablets and capsules, as some of the drug is likely delivered through the mucous membranes in the mouth, while sucking on the lozenge. The bioavailability is probably not much different though, as stanozolol is very well-absorbed orally.

Microgram bulletins seem to deal exclusively with "street" drugs, samples taken during arrests and customs/immigration seizures. So this is a very unusual report, and I am not quite sure what to make of it. Furthermore, knowing this is a legitimate product sold on order of U.S. physicians puts the "steroid candy" title in perspective.

At quick glance, someone might read the report and assume an extremely unscrupulous drug dealer was producing steroid-containing candies in an effort to attract children as customers. The reality is far different, of course— namely, a DEA licensed pharmacy producing the drug (perhaps in a more convenient form) for adult patients under the care of a doctor. It is probably not worthy of law enforcement attention, and I certainly don't think it's time we alert the media and gather up the children. We'll have to wait, however, and see if others agree.

WHO: More Than Half Internet Drugs Are Fake

The World Health Organization has been very active in recent months reporting on what is being considered by many to be an epidemic of drug counterfeiting. A recent report (WHO: counterfeit medicines fact sheet January, 2010) warns the public about the risks of drug counterfeiting, and critically examines shortcomings in the global pharmaceutical trade that have allowed the illicit producers to thrive. It is a problem not isolated to anabolic steroids. In fact, steroids are not even mentioned in this report.

The problem seems to involve every type of drug imaginable, from cholesterol-lowering medications, to impotency treatments, to drugs for psychological disorders. It seems that where there is money to be made in medicines, and a weakness in the system for counterfeiters to exploit, they are finding ways to do just that.

To gain a scope of the problem, the WHO estimates that 5 percent of all drugs sold worldwide are counterfeit (1 out of every 20!). As would be expected, counterfeiting is most prominent in regions with weak regulatory controls on medicines, such as Asia and the Middle East. In nations with strong regulatory systems such as the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and most of the European Union, counterfeiting is extremely rare, accounting for less than 1 percent of the market. In developing nations, however, counterfeit drugs may account for over 30 percent of the drugs given to patients. The impact of these fake drugs has been strong, ranging from widespread lack of therapeutic benefit, to serious injury and death in the case of certain contaminated or mislabeled medicines.

The part of the report that hits home for this article is the statistics on Internet pharmacies. According to the WHO, more than half of all drugs purchased off the Internet from companies that do not display a physical address, are actually counterfeit. I bring this up because in the quest to avoid the risks of underground anabolic steroids , many bodybuilders in Western nations have been turning to mail-order pharmacies in loosely-regulated nations. They are searching for the legitimate human-grade steroid products that are found in these nations, expecting them to come at much lower risk than their underground manufactured counterparts. As we see in this report, however, given the high prevalence of counterfeiting with Internet pharmacies, this may also be an avenue of high risk.

The World Health Organization has formed an International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force. This task force had made many recommendations for curbing the rampant spread of counterfeiting. In particular, one idea I am in strong favor of is using the technology of the Internet to verify the authenticity of pharmaceutical products. Manufacturers can place individualized, verifiable codes on all of their drug products. Pharmacists, wholesalers, and patients could then enter this code on the company website to see if it matches one stored in their system.

High-traffic verification of the code would result in authorities and consumers being notified that a code has been misappropriated. A small number of steroid manufacturers already have implemented such systems. It would be good to see many more follow suit. Until then, be careful out there.

New Long-acting GH

You may recall the product Nutropin Depot, which was the first long-acting growth hormone medication to be approved in the United States. It required injections only 1-2 times per month in a clinical setting, far more convenient than 2-7 times per week dosing of traditional fast-acting growth hormone (most often daily).

Nutropin Depot has been unavailable since 2004, however, when Genentech voluntarily discontinued its sale, citing difficulties in producing the medicine. Since then, patients in the United States have only had access to the standard fast-acting forms of human growth hormone (somatropin), such as Serostim, Humatrope, and Saizen.

In potentially promising news for those who appreciate the effects of GH but not the frequent injections, Prolor Biotech recently announced successful Phase I human clinical trials on a new long-acting form of HGH. Called hGH-CTP, the half-life of growth hormone protein has been dramatically extended by its attachment to a natural amino acid sequence called a carboxyl terminal peptide.

The Phase I trial was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single-dose, dose-escalating (4 mg, 7 mg, or 21 mg) study, which looked at markers of drug effects, safety, and distribution (pharmacokinetics). The results suggest that the drug can achieve therapeutic levels for up to two weeks after a single injection, and potentially pave the way for further study and future FDA market approval. It may be some time, but a long-acting HGH may indeed be coming back to the U.S.

[MBMETC]

I'm suprised to see the media didn't get this out in time for halloween to try to scare the sh** out of parents. i could see the headlines "STEROID CANDY, TRICK OR TREAT" duchbag media!