The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) concluded its Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) Symposium in New Delhi, India, on Friday with the program's associate director revealing that two existing modules that can detect EPO and steroid doping along with a new module that detects human growth hormone (HGH) use, will be introduced into the passport.

Speaking to the New Indian Express, Dr. Reid Akin emphasized the effectiveness of the blood and steroid passport in deterring doping.

"We are seeing a change in the nature of these passports and the prevalence of positives," Akin said.

"If you look at the ABP, amateurs, and national-level populations where athletes are not heavily tested, the prevalence of drug use is high here. So it really depends on the amount of testing whether it has a strong impact."

Procycling was the first sport to introduce ABP in 2008 as a way to indirectly detect the use of blood-boosting drugs like EPO.

Before EPO was detected, the UCI attempted to curb abuse by setting limits on athletes' hematocrit values. The first test for the drug was developed in 2001, but EPO remained rampant until the ABP came into effect, as later found from investigations such as Operacion Puerto and the doping investigation of Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service team.

However, Akin stated that the use of EPO for performance-enhancing purposes "will not go away."

"This is something that is very much in use. However, if you look at populations where passports have been used over a long period of time, use is declining.

Recent cases like the 2019 "Operation Adelas" prove that doping is not going away.

WADA has a steroid module that picks up substances that help build muscle in addition to fighting blood boosting, which helps increase the oxygen available to a rider's muscles, and in 2023 a system to detect the use of growth hormone to aid recovery The company plans to do the same.

"First, we will launch an endocrine module early next year that will help detect doping of human growth hormone and anything that affects growth hormone.

"Also, early next year we will launch a new steroid marker that will be measured in blood. Currently, steroid markers are measured in urine, but we plan to add markers that complement that. Ongoing research is being done to find new markers within existing modules or to extend them to new modules."

Doping may not go away, but Akin said that even if athletes "microdose" for fear of detection, "it is a victory for anti-doping."

"As athletes reduce their doses, they expect the effects to diminish. The lower the dose of a substance, the less the effect. So if athletes start to use lower doses, smaller doses, or reduce the timing of their use, that is a victory for anti-doping. Not a win for the system, but less effective. It is less effective than their doping program."