USADA announced on Friday that UFC athlete Ian McCall has been granted a retroactive Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) and will therefore not face an anti-doping policy violation after receiving an intravenous infusion of a non-prohibited substance in February of 2017.
On February 10, 2017, McCall, 32, received an intravenous infusion of normal saline solution at the recommendation of his physician to treat an acute medical condition. At the time of the intravenous infusion, McCall was scheduled to compete at UFC 208 in Brooklyn, New York, on February 11, 2017, but he was subsequently removed from the card due to illness.
Although saline is not prohibited under the UFC Anti-Doping Program, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List, which has been adopted by the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, all intravenous infusions and/or injections of more than 50mL per 6-hour period are prohibited at all times unless the athlete obtains a TUE in advance, or if the infusion is legitimately received in the course of hospital admissions, surgical procedures, or clinical investigations.
After a thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding the potential violation, which included the retroactive TUE application process, USADA determined that the athlete had a diagnosed acute medical condition for which the use of an intravenous infusion is consistent with the standard of care. Because McCall’s TUE application was granted retroactively, his use of a prohibited method will not result in an anti-doping policy violation.
