LBCD

Brazilian Doping Control Laboratory recovers its international accreditation

Reaccreditation was announced during meeting between the Minister of Sport and the World Anti-Doping Agency

The Brazilian Doping Control Laboratory (LBCD) was reaccredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) this late Wednesday morning (13.05). The announcement was made at the meeting of the entity’s Founding Board in Montreal in Canada, attended by the Minister of Sport George Hilton and the national secretary of the Brazilian Doping Control Authority (ABCD) Marco Aurelio Klein.

“Recovering the accreditation is the result of considerable effort by the federal government and is part of our country’s preparation for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The anti-doping system will be a major legacy, but some complementary steps still need to be taken in order to ensure fair play in sport at the highest level. We’re going to strive to implement them as soon as possible. They are the setting up of an appeal court and empowering ABCD as the only organisation in charge of doping control in Brazil", stated Minister George Hilton. “These are issues pointed out by WADA as critical and we’re going to move forward”.

The laboratory has become the 34th facility accredited by WADA - a laboratory in Turkey was also accredited this Wednesday - and the second in South America (the other is in Bogota, Colombia).

The reaccreditation process started in 2014, year when LBCD officially opened its new headquarters at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University (UFRJ). The building was built with R$ 134 million in investments by the federal government. The Ministry of Sport provided R$ 106 million and the other R$ 28 million were paid for by the Ministry of Education. In addition, the Ministry of Sport invested another R$ 54 million in the purchase of equipment, materials and the lab’s operations.

After LBCD lost its accreditation in 2013, as a result of outdated equipment unable to conduct analyses complying with WADA requirements, Brazil had to send samples to other laboratories accredited by the agency, like the ones in Bogota, Los Angeles and Barcelona. In addition to increasing test related costs, often the process became unviable because of the distance and time needed for the samples to arrive at the laboratories.

“From today onwards, LBCD is able to receive and analyse samples, which means that very soon, analyses requested by ABCD itself that are currently sent to other laboratories, will be able to be sent to Rio de Janeiro. It is a privilege that only thirty countries have”, celebrated Marco Aurelio Klein.

The laboratory is expecting a lot of demand in 2015. From July until the begging of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the country shall stage a total of 44 test-events, where doping control tests will be done.

“As soon as we get back to Brazil we’re going to start to plan the process to begin sending all our samples to LBCD. This is very important because we plan to conduct 2,500 tests by the end of the year, three times more than we used to do before", stated Klein. “Certainly from June onwards, all samples will be sent to LBCD. And at the most by July, we hope to be able to deal with football samples too", added Klein, remembering that the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) currently uses the Bogota laboratory.

In relation to test-events, Marco Aurelio Klein stated that ABCD will be responsible for anti-doping tests. According to him, plans are being finalised with each sport's international federation. “It will be a small number of tests, there will be competitions with four, eight or ten, but they are very important as an exercise to be done by ABCD and for the Rio 2016 Games."

Reaccreditation

In order to be accredited again, LBCD was tested and assessed intensively by WADA for about nine months. Five batches of samples were sent by the agency and other analyses were done using the lab's own samples as an enhancement exercise. With the new structure and staff supervised by Professor Francisco Radler, the laboratory coordinator, LBCD passed the test and started to be recognised by the World Anti-Doping Agency again.

"It was a very demanding process. We recognise efforts by the Ministry of Sport through ABCD and Minister George Hilton. There is pressure on Brazil because of the Rio 2016 Games and of course, WADA’s goal was to get there with the laboratory accredited, but this depended on the lab's performance. There was a will, but work was done to pass in all technical tests, which are very demanding and comply with international standards employed by laboratories", explained Maria José Pesce, director of the WADA Latin America Regional Office.

According to Pesce, the LBCD accreditation will bring benefits not just for Brazil, but also for the continent. “There are only a few laboratories in South America. This is very important for Brazil and for the Rio 2016 Games, but also for the region, as a sport legacy for the whole continent", she stated.

From now on, LBCD will have to meet some criteria established by WADA to keep its accreditation. Maria José Pesce explains that the agency is constantly assessing the situation and the Brazilian laboratory will have to conduct at least three thousand tests per year, as well as controlling the quality of processes. “Athletes need to be assured that samples analysed at LBCD meet WADA international standards”.