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Thursday, 25.04.2024, 00:25
Latvia's Grindex and World Anti-Doping Agency agree on cooperation
The parties during the meeting agreed on further cooperation and
voiced interest in preventing malicious and ungrounded use of the medication.
Grindex will
continue to collect scientific proof and ask WADA to remove Milodrante from the
list of prohibited substances.
Grindex board
chairman Juris Bundulis said that
the company wants its medication to be available to all patients who need it,
including athletes.
The meeting with WADA representatives was held in Montreal,
Canada, and was attended by Bundulis, the inventor of Mildronate and the head
of the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, Ivars Kalvins, as well as Grindex experts.
As reported, WADA has extended the period in
which athletes testing positive for meldonium can escape sanctions until
September 30. WADA extended a policy that had previously covered the period
from January 1 to March 1.
WADA added meldonium, which was developed in Latvia, to the banned
list on January 1 after claiming there was evidence that it was being used for
performance enhancing purposes. Latvian-made Mildronate hit the headlines
earlier this year after Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova admitted that she had failed a dope test at the
Australian Open after taking the medication.
Even though Grindex hopes that meldonium will be completely removed from the
list of prohibited substances, at present it is planned that it will be banned
completely from October 1.
Grindex
Group's turnover in in the first six months of 2016 was EUR 46.4 mln, EUR
2.6 mln or 5.9% up from the respective period last year 2015, while the group's
net profit, attributable to shareholders of the parent company, was EUR 4.2 mln
in contrast, growing EUR 1 mln or 32.4% y-o-y.
Grindex is an
international, vertically integrated pharmaceutical company. Main fields of
action are research, development, manufacturing and sales of original products,
generics and active pharmaceutical ingredients. The Group of Grindex consists
of five subsidiary companies in Latvia, Estonia, Russia and Slovakia as well as
representative offices in 13 countries.
Grindex
specializes in the heart and cardiovascular, CNS and anti-cancer medication
therapeutic groups. A range of products covers a successful combination of
original products and generics, with the original products Mildronate and
Ftorafur. Currently Grindex produces
25 active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Products of the company are exported to 70
countries and its export comprises 90% of the total turnover. The key markets
include the European Union countries, Russia and other C.I.S. countries, the
United States, Canada, Japan and Vietnam.