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NIH Announces New Initiatives to Fight the Use
of Brain Enhancing Drugs by Scientists
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced three new
initiatives to fight the use of brain enhancing drugs by scientists. The new initiatives are (1) the
creation of the NIH Anti-Brain Doping Advisory Group (NABDAG), a new
trans-NIH committee, (2) a collaboration with the World Anti-Doping
Authority (WADA) and the European Commission Research to create the World
Anti Brain Doping Authority (WABDA) and (3) the establishment of new
regulations and related enforcement procedures on the use of brain
enhancing drugs among scientists receiving NIH funding, (2)
"These new initiatives are designed to level the playing field among
scientist in terms of intellectual activities," said NIH Director
Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. "These three activities are designed to get
NIH ahead of the curve in terms of performance enhancing drugs."
NABDAG will serve to coordinate activities across different NIH agencies
in terms of regulating the use of brain enhancing drugs. The trans-NIH
group will be directed by internationally renowned doping authority XXX ,
Ph.D., former director of XXX.
"The priority of NABDAG will be to seek out input from the
scientific community and from within NIH," XXX said. "The
availability of tremendous expertise and the remarkable infrastructure at
NIH will make our activities more robust and will allow us to tackle
questions about brain doping that were not possible to address in the
past. For example, new testing
procedures will need to be developed and we will be able to bring the
entire NIH infrastructure to this task."
While “doping” is now accepted as a problem among athletes, it is less
widely known that so-celled “brain doping” has been affecting the
competitive balance in scientific research as well. It is for this reason that NIH is
collaborating with the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) which has led the
fight against doping in athletics, to create the World Anti Brain Doping
Authority (WABDA). “Because
brain doping is not just an American problem,” said YYY, we are working
with the European Union’s research funding agency, the European Commission
Research, to make sure WABDA is effective.”
NABDAG will be established within the NIH Office of Intramural Research
and administered by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Additional support for the center will come from the NIH Office of the
Director, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Center for
Scientific Review (CSR). The research activities of NABDAG will take place
on the NIH Bethesda campus. An additional focus of NABDAG will be to
provide training opportunities for students and established scientists from
developing countries and from minority groups in the United States.
Together with WABDA, NABDAG will work to develop the international rules
for the use of performance enhancing drugs among scientists as well as
testing and punishment procedures.
NIH also announces today the first new regulations relating to the use
of brain enhancing drugs among scientists. All who receive any type of NIH funding will be required
to follow these regulations.
First, a set of XXX drugs has been officially banned. Second, all those who receive NIH
funding will be required to submit to blood and urine samples. Third, random testing will be
done. Any positive test will
result in punishments: X for the first offense, Y for the second and Z for
the third. Appeals of
punishment will be handled by WABDA.
Some quote here.
NIMH, NIDA, and CSR and NIDDK are among the 27 institutes and centers at
the NIH, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The NIMH
…. Additional information about NHGRI can be found at its Web site XXXX.
The NIDA XXX. Additional information about NIDA can be found at XXX. CSR
XXX. Additional information can be found at XXX..
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical
Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a
component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the
primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and
translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments,
and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH
and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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