Sport Integrity Australia to Expand Drug Testing Amid Peptide Popularity

The nation's anti-doping agency has revealed that it plans to expand drug-testing in Australian sport in response to the soaring popularity of unregulated peptides in the broader community.

Amid a sharp rise in the importation and manufacturing of black and grey market peptides, Sport Integrity Australia (SIA), formerly known as ASADA, told 7.30 it is working with law enforcement agencies to identify any substances that could pose a doping threat.

The organisation is also investigating if professional athletes are among those buying unregulated products online or via compounding pharmacies.

SIA CEO Sarah Benson said the agency would update its screening regime to include a wider variety of prohibited chemicals and would also change "how, when and who we test".

Drug-testing in sport is done in line with standards set by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) , which told 7.30 it regularly adds various peptides to its prohibited list and works with pharmaceutical companies to develop accurate detection methods.

Signatories to the WADA code decide which banned substances they test for.

Dr Benson said SIA collects around 5,000 tests each year from more than 4,000 athletes, with approximately 65 per cent screened when they're not competing.

"As you can imagine, testing samples for everything and testing everyone for everything at all times is not efficient and not achievable," Dr Benson said.

"And therefore, making sure the way we test, who we test and when we test is intelligence and risk-informed is really important."

While Sport Integrity Australia currently tests for some peptides, the program will be widened to screen more athletes for a wider range of peptides, markers and metabolites; the molecules produced as the substances break down in the body.

Rise of influencer marketing

Dr Benson is also concerned some athletes could unknowingly take banned or unregulated substances due to the way many are marketed online as wellness or recovery treatments.

Many of those compounds being promoted by social media influencers are banned for use by regulators, including in the US.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has recently observed a significant increase in the promotion and use of unapproved peptide products, including injectable formulations, marketed for purposes such as anti-ageing, bodybuilding, tanning and weight loss.

A TGA spokesperson told 7.30 the increase was largely driven by "social media promotion, influencer marketing and the portrayal of peptides as 'wellness' treatments".

The TGA has issued multiple public warnings about the potential risks of taking therapeutics that have not been assessed for safety, quality or effectiveness.

It has received reports of severe allergic reactions requiring hospitalisation, and wide-ranging side-effects including blurred vision, flu-like illnesses and severe inflammation in the body.

Health authorities and experts are particularly concerned about the influx of unapproved products from overseas, including from low-cost sellers in China.

Australian National University medicinal chemist Professor Lara Malins said there was no way of knowing the contents or identity of unregulated products purchased online.

"You might buy something off the internet that's labelled a GLP-1 peptide, but in reality what is in that bottle might be very different to what you would expect," Professor Malins told 7.30.

Buying unregulated peptides online

Brisbane-based small business owner Casey Wesche bought an unapproved peptide from an online supplier because she wanted to lose weight.

She says she was so pleased with the results she decided to order more unregulated peptides, one of which is marketed as supporting skin repair and hair growth.

Ms Wesche said she was not concerned by safety warnings about purchasing untested products from online suppliers.

"I was forced to get a COVID injection … and it caused a lot of health issues for a lot of people," she said.

"If I've done something in years to come and it's like, well this is the result of taking something like that, then it is what it is."

Ms Wesche orders from an Australian-based seller which is affiliated with a website offering content creators a commission for driving sales.

She told 7.30 she had received a couple of freebies for promoting the supplier on social media, but her main reason for sharing her experience was to help others.

"I'm an open book. I love that I'm able to help people and answer their questions," she said.

"Whether they choose to try it or not, that's up to them. But there has been a massive influx of inquiries."

Professor Malins said all medicines, including peptides, need to undergo up to 15 years of clinical trials and testing before they could be approved by the TGA as safe and effective.

"Where it's a brand-new peptide, we really don't understand yet what the long-term impacts might be of taking this drug or medicine," she said.

"The challenge is if it hasn't been clinically validated in humans, [then] injecting or consuming it is premature, because we really don't understand yet the safety of the molecule."