Spain launches Anti-Doping Application

NoDopApp is a free app for smartphones and portable computers developed by the Spanish Agency for Health Protection in Sport (AEPSAD) to enable users to check, easily and accessibly, whether a medicinal product authorized in Spain contains any substance currently included on the \"List of Substances and Methods Banned in Sport\" published each year in the Official State Gazette (BOE) by means of a Resolution adopted by the Higher Council for Sport. This tool, already downloadable free of charge for devices using the Android operating system through the GooglePlay app store (shortly also available for Apple and Windows devices), offers the possibility of finding out this information by writing in the name of the medicine or its active ingredient or else by typing in the product’s reference code found on the upper right corner of the packaging. The app will indicate whether the substances contained in the medicinal product or the active ingredient queried are included on the List of Substances and Methods Banned in Sport. For those cases where a substance is not banned in all circumstances but only in certain contexts (form of administration, dosage applied, sport, in competition checks) will also be specified. Users also have the option to send their enquiries or comments to the AEPSAD through the app itself, as well as to receive notifications of interest about health-related matters when practising sports and the effects of doping. The database underlying this application is taken from the registration information for medicinal products authorized by the Spanish Medicines and Health-Care Products Agency (AEMPS) and the information on doping substances is based on the current List of Substances and Methods Banned in Sport. This list is published every year in Spain’s BOE within the context of the international undertakings and obligations assumed by the Spanish government and, in particular, in the framework of the UNESCO Anti-Doping Convention. In this way, the countries that have ratified this Convention, including Spain, approve and adopt the List of Banned Substances and Methods of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).