The restoration of the accreditation of the Laboratory for Doping Analysis (LAD) in Lisbon is a “gain” in terms of prestige, speed and cost reduction in the fight against doping, the State Secretary for Youth and Sport emphasized today.
“It is a gain in international prestige for the national sport and an opportunity for national teams and teams to see Portugal as a destination with the best infrastructure in the world and also with conditions to test for major events. It is also a gain in terms of speed of results, cost reduction and increase in LAD revenue. There is a lot to be gained from this achievement,” João Paulo Correia summed up with Lusa.
Four years after the license was revoked, by decision of the Executive Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the LAD is operational again after the international agency approved a recommendation from its advisory group of laboratory experts.
“This was one of the main goals in the field of sport at the beginning of this government period,” acknowledged João Paulo Correia, emphasizing the importance to national sport of the “shorter deadlines and lower costs” of the operation.
The reinstatement of the LAD, which will be subject to evaluations over a period of six to 12 months, will mean a “20% reduction in the cost of each analysis,” the official said, warning that this decision would be resume surgery, may take “a few more weeks”.
He also specified that the change in the auspices of the LAD, which was under the tutelage of the Portuguese Institute of Sports and Youth (IPDJ) and passed to the National Institute Ricardo Jorge (INSA), has no impact in terms of costs. , logistical or operational.
“LAD lives off the income from the analyses. They couldn’t do it without accreditation. It was just costs. In 2023, the LAD will have revenue that it has not had since 2018. The costs remain. analyzes that the laboratory. It will be a positive operation or much less negative than since 2018, because it has no prescriptions,” he underlined.
The suspension of credentials in April 2016 was due to the laboratory’s lack of independence, delays in reporting results and failure to apply mandatory dust detection methods.
“The international sports community knows that Portugal lost accreditation in 2018 and this path represents the government’s attempt to regain it. It is a relentless fight for the sporting truth on several fronts and this is one of them. complete anti-doping policy We have an anti-doping policy, an authority that implements this policy and an LAD where the analyzes are performed,” he applauded.
The LAD was stripped of its credentials on October 25, 2018, just over two years after the April 15, 2016 suspension, initially for a six-month period since when it was barred from conducting urine and blood tests.
Source: DN
