Canadian doctor faces US charges
Source: Agencies |
May 20, 2010, Thursday
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A CANADIAN doctor whose high-profile clients have included Tiger Woods and Alex Rodriguez was charged on Tuesday with bringing unapproved drugs into the United States and unlawfully treating professional athletes.
Dr Anthony Galea of Toronto, who is known for using a blood-spinning technique designed to speed recovery from injuries, is accused of injecting at least one current National Football League player with Actovegin, a calf's blood derivative which is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and providing a retired player with human growth hormone after his playing days had ended.
Woods has said Galea treated him, and the doctor has said he prescribed anti-inflammatories to Rodriguez as the Yankee slugger recovered from hip surgery last year. Both superstar athletes deny receiving performance-enhancing drugs from Galea.
A criminal complaint filed in US District Court in Buffalo charges Galea with smuggling, unlawful distribution of human growth hormone, introducing an unapproved drug into interstate commerce, conspiring to lie to federal agents and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Galea, who is not authorized to work in the United States, is accused of repeatedly entering the country from 2007 to 2009 to treat professional athletes from Major League Baseball, the NFL and Professional Golfers' Association, US Attorney William Hochul said.
During that time, he billed three football players about Us$200,000, Hochul said.
The 50-year-old Galea travelled to various US cities to meet with athletes in hotel rooms and their homes. He became the focus of Canadian and US authorities' attention last September when his assistant, Mary Anne Catalano, was stopped at the border in Buffalo with a small quantity of human growth hormone, Actovegin, and vials of "foreign homeopathic drugs."
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