Agilent Technologies Inc. today
announced it has hosted the first of three leadership delegations from
China's Anti-Doping Agency, as China prepares for the 2008 Olympic
Games. The meetings include technical training on anti-doping
instruments and methods developed by Agilent, a primary supplier of
technology to China's Anti-Doping Agency since 1988.
The China Anti-Doping Agency is one of the largest and most
technologically advanced testing facilities in the world; it will
examine more than 4,500 samples from athletes during the 2008 Olympic
Games. The agency has equipped its Beijing lab with state-of-the-art
Agilent liquid chromatography (LC), gas chromatography (GC) and mass
spectrometry (MS) instruments to confirm the chemical identity of
suspected banned substances found in testing samples. Agilent is
providing 18 LC/MS units and 19 GC/MS units for drug testing at the
2008 Olympic Games.
"China has quickly become a world model for anti-doping
efforts," said Du Lijun, director of China's Anti-Doping Agency.
"Agilent's liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry instrumentation
will help make China's Anti-Doping Agency testing in the 2008 Olympic
Games the most technologically advanced yet."
Agilent is a leading provider of LC/MS and GC/MS
instrumentation. A mass spectrometer is often directly connected to a
liquid chromatograph or gas chromatograph to form highly sensitive and
specific LC/MS or GC/MS systems. A liquid or gas chromatograph is used
to separate and detect the components in a sample. The mass
spectrometer measures the molecular weight of substances, generating a
spectral pattern that is unique to the compound being analyzed. This
chemical "fingerprint" is compared to a database of reference spectra
to provide unambiguous confirmation of the compound.
"We are proud of our relationship with China's anti-doping
efforts, which date back to the 1980s," said Mike McMullen, vice
president and general manager of Agilent's Chemical Analysis Solutions
Unit. "This highly critical application demands a high level of trust,
not just in the technology, but also in the level of support to be
certain that the lab is completely reliable in every way."
For more than 30 years, Agilent has developed a strong
reputation in analytical instruments and methods for drug testing in
sports. In 1972, Agilent supplied analytical instrumentation to the lab
serving the first Olympic Games in which testing was required. Since
then, Agilent technology has played a role with drug-testing labs
serving each of the Olympic Games as well as major events such as World
Cup Soccer and the Tour de France.
The China Anti-Doping Agency, previously known as the China
Doping Control Center, has been accredited by the International Olympic
Committee from 1989 to 2003 and by the World Anti-Doping Agency since
2004. It is located in the National Olympic Center, which was the main
venue area for 13th Asian Games in 1990 and is a competition venue for
the 2008 Olympic Games.