Is January 1 2016 drug ban aimed at Russia?

[Glass]

From January 1 a new drug was added to the banned substances list for international sports.

Meldonium was added to the list as part of the WADA code. The drug is used to deal with low levels of magnesium and for people susceptible to diabetes.

This drug is not available in the USA but is available in Russia. So no American atheletes would be using it, but Russian atheletes would be.

Since January 1 several international atheletes including body builders or weight lifters have tested positive. All have been Russian.

MAria Sharipova who has used the drug for the past 10 years tested positive after the drug was added to the banned list.

She has now lost her contract with Nike and is facing calls for her achievements to be deleted from the record. To be clear, the call is for all of her achievements to be deleted because she has been on the drug for 10 years, not because it's been banned for less than 3 months.

The story is contiunually being butchered so that important info keeps going missing from the stories.
Story at the Age (http://www.theage.com.au/sport/tennis/meldonium-or-mildronate-the-banned-drug-maria-sharapova-took-20160307-gnd1bz.html)

The explanation of why she was using the drug is being scrubbed from the stories. Eventually it will be made out that the only reason she took it was for performance enhancement, even though it was never banned until 2016.

[vacuum]

From wikipedia:

The mechanism of action of meldonium is to act as a fatty acid oxidation inhibitor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatty_acid_oxidation_inhibitor), presumably by inhibiting enzymes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzyme_inhibitor) in the carnitine biosynthesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnitine_biosynthesis) pathway such as γ-butyrobetaine hydroxylase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-butyrobetaine_dioxygenase).[20] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meldonium#cite_note-20) γ-Butyrobetaine hydroxylase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-butyrobetaine_dioxygenase) is an enzyme (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzyme) that belongs to the 2-oxoglutarate (2OG) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-oxoglutarate) oxygenase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygenase) superfamily and catalyses the formation of L-carnitine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-carnitine) from γ-butyrobetaine.[21] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meldonium#cite_note-pmid9753662-21)[22] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meldonium#cite_note-entrez-22) X-ray crystallographic and in vitro biochemical studies suggest meldonium binds to the substrate pocket of γ-butyrobetaine hydroxylase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-butyrobetaine_dioxygenase) and acts as a competitive substrate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substrate_%28biochemistry%29)/inhibitor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzyme_inhibitor) to form malonic acid semialdehyde, dimethylamine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethylamine), formaldehyde (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formaldehyde), 3-amino-4-(methyamino)butanoic acid and (1-methylimidazolidin-4-yl)acetic acid,[23] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meldonium#cite_note-23)[24] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meldonium#cite_note-pmid11248709-24) likely via a Steven's type rearrangement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevens_rearrangement) mechanism.[25] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meldonium#cite_note-pmid22765904-25) Mildronate is a potent γ-butyrobetaine hydroxylase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-butyrobetaine_dioxygenase) inhibitor, with a half maximal inhibitory concentration (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_maximal_inhibitory_concentration) (IC50) value of 62 μM.[26] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meldonium#cite_note-26) Meldonium is an example of a non-peptidyl substrate mimic inhibitor for human 2OG (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-oxoglutarate) oxygenase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygenase).[27]
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meldonium#cite_note-pmid21390379-27)
Meldonium has also been shown by NMR (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMR) to bind to carnitine acetyltransferase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnitine_acetyltransferase).[28] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meldonium#cite_note-28) Carnitine acetyltransferase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnitine_acetyltransferase) belongs to a family of ubiquitous enzymes that play pivotal roles in cellular energy metabolism.[29] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meldonium#cite_note-29) Meldonium therefore may act as a regulator of energy metabolism. Meldonium is a relatively weak inhibitor to carnitine acetyltransferase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnitine_acetyltransferase) (when compared to γ-butyrobetaine hydroxylase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-butyrobetaine_dioxygenase)), with an inhibition constant (KI) of 1.6 mM.


It seems like a bullshit ban to me. This drug only deals with and works with oxidation and amino acids. No hormones, steroids, or anything like that. They compare it to insulin, but insulin is a hormone/control signal. This drug is not a control signal. It physically operates on fatty acids and proteins. It's like BCAAs or creatine. -- Disclaimer: I know very very little about this stuff, but from the little I do know, this is my opinion. Doesn't count for a ton in this case, but I'd like to hear from more medically trained people if they agree.

[vacuum]

Seems pretty dumb because I don't see how it violates either of the last two. Unless not being approved by the FDA means that it necessarily is a "potential" risk.



How does a substance get considered for the WADA Prohibited List?

Typically, a substance or method will be considered for the WADA Prohibited List if the substance or method meets any two of the following three criteria:


It has the potential to enhance or enhances sport performance
It represents an actual or potential health risk to the athlete
It violates the spirit of sport