page_title: Jenapharm
section_title: Doping and lawsuits
hierarchical_section_title: Jenapharm / Doping and lawsuits
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Heike Drechsler, Silke Gladisch, Sabine Rieger ADN-ZB Kluge 29.6.86 Bez. Gera: DDR-Leichtathletik-Meisterschaften in Jena- Die Weitsprung-Weltrekordlerin Heike Drechsler (r.) vom SC Motor Jena egalisierte am dritten Tag der Meisterschaften den 200-m-Weltrekord von Marita Koch in 21,71 s. Zweite wurde Silke Gladisch (Nr. 162, 2.v.r.), mit der Nr. 59 Sabine Rieger (3.v.r.).
context_page_description: Jenapharm is a pharmaceutical company from Jena, Germany. Founded in 1950 in East Germany, the company focused from the beginning on the production and development of steroids. Due to the economic circumstances of the Eastern Bloc, the company initially used a unique process of steroid synthesis starting from hog bile, however this method was abandoned a decade later in favor of total synthesis. Initially the company produced a wide range of generic steroids, including corticosteroids, but later on it focused on anabolic steroids, estrogens and progestins.
  Prior to Germany's reunification Jenapharm was the only supplier of hormonal contraceptives in East Germany. It successfully marketed a number of drugs it had developed in collaboration with other East German chemists. Perhaps the most well known of these is Valette, which sold well in Germany in the 1990s.
context_section_description: Starting from 1966, East Germany ran a vast state-sponsored program of doping. The state gave grants and organized symposia where scientists and physicians who served as unofficial collaborators for the Ministry for State Security ("Stasi"), including top-ranking professors, collaborated on doping research and methods of drug administration that would evade detection by international doping controls. GDR physicians administered prescription drugs as well as unapproved experimental drug preparations to several thousand athletes every year, including to minors of both sexes. Special emphasis was placed on administering androgens to women and adolescent girls because this practice proved to be particularly effective for improving sports performance.
  In the 1980s doping tests at Olympic events became more widespread and effective. A symposium to face this problem was held in Leipzig on June 24, 1981. In the ensuing years nasal spray preparations containing testosterone or androstenedione were developed in collaboration with Jenapharm, tested, and used in top athletes—some of whom did not like this mode of application. Doping tests at the time used the T:E (testosterone:epitestosterone) ratio. Since 1983, Jenapharm had produced preparations of epitestosterone propionate, a biologically inactive compound that had no commercial value but was prepared exclusively for the governmental doping system. It was used simultaneously or sequentially with testosterone injections to bring the T:E ratio back into the normal range, but only for athletes participating in international competitions. This protocol made it possible for female athletes to receive high testosterone dosages and still pass doping tests, but it had strong virilizing effects, in particular hirsutism and voice changes. Concomitant consumption of alcohol or contraceptive pills led to severe and sometimes life-threatening liver damage. In male weight lifters cases of gynecomastia had to be resolved by surgery. All these side effects, as well the athletic improvements were meticulously documented in reports to the Stasi.
  In 2005 some 160 former athletes, facing spiraling medical costs from the long term side effects of anabolic steroids, sued Jenapharm. Some of the female athletes had suffered multiple miscarriages. Many of the former athletes did not qualify for state medical insurance because they have been too ill to work. Initially Jenapharm denied responsibility for their condition, arguing that Oral Turinabol had been legally approved in the GDR and available on the market, but was misused by sports physicians and trainers. Lawyers representing the athletes argued that research from files left behind by Stasi secret police showed that Jenapharm also passed non-approved substances to trainers and withheld information about their side effects, thereby breaking the law. Another argument brought by the athletes was that Jenapharm manufactured substances that had no use other than doping, and that the government pressure in East Germany was not so great that company were unable to refuse engaging in doping-related activities. Eventually, the German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB), the legal successor to the former East German National Olympic Committee, compensated each athlete with €9,250 ($12,200). Jenapharm contributed to the $4.1 million fund. About $500,000 were set aside for future claims.
caption: Heike Drechsler, Silke Gladisch, and Sabine Rieger, who set multiple world records, had an ambiguous relationship with the use of AAS.
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