The Wonder Drug That’s Plaguing Sports

Twenty-five years later, James Dalton proudly recalled “that euphoric moment” when the rats were dissected and he saw their prostate glands had shrunk.

“It still gives me goose bumps,” he said, pointing at his arm.

Dalton, 63, is a drug discovery scientist by trade with more than 100 patents under his name in the United States, and more than 500 internationally. This is a man who has dissected many, many rats.

But the specimens that day in early 2000 were special. Dalton, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee in Memphis at the time, was trying to develop a blockbuster medicine that would mimic the desirable effects of testosterone and anabolic steroids — including muscle growth and increased bone mass — while dialing down the unwanted ones.