NADA signs MoU to create more awareness on drugs

The National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to help create awareness about drugs among athletes.
"This memorandum is essentially meant to provide a convenient option for Indian athletes to know whether any drug sold in the Indian market contains any prohibited substance as per the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code," NADA said in a release.
"The system is expected to be in place in another three months. Thereafter, typing the brand name of any medicine in the website or app will indicate whether that medicine or drug is prohibited or not as per the anti-doping code."

NADA found that the Indian athletes always faced difficulty in understanding which drugs are prohibited for them.
"The Indian athletes had always been finding it difficult to understand which drugs are prohibited for them and even the generic names of several prohibited substances could not be deciphered easily by the doctors of the athletes.
"NADA had been working towards finding out a solution to this problem so that whenever any athlete falls sick and is prescribed medicines he or she should know whether these can be taken safely or require therapeutic use exemption," it said further.
The system is expected to be in place in another three months; thereafter typing the brand name of any medicine in the website or App will indicate whether that medicine or drug is prohibited or not as per the anti-doping code.

Navin Agarwal, Director General, NADA, signed the agreement, Sports Secretary Injeti Srinivas and NPPA chairman Bhupendra Singh were present on the occasion.