I've heard from several sources that a WADA compliant drug test (including security procedures) costs $700-$800 per test.

---

-------------
Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

Does that include sample collection?

My very sketchy understanding is that it does. But probably not an out of competition collection. I'm just guessing here...

---

-------------
Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

What are you implying? You'd like a movie about a bop triathlete becoming slightly less terrible by taking drugs? Or you'd like someone to investigate doping in amateur tri, uncover very little, but stumble upon an international doping ring in other sports?

Sure, but you don't have to test every sample individually. You could pool 20 samples (or some factor less than the expected positive result) and then only further individually test all the samples that tested positive for their combined pool. For amateurs, there is no biological passport which requires individual testing.

A whole lot of assumptions in this but...

ELISA EPO kits cost around $700. I presume that you could run many samples on one 96 well plate. I'd guess that after you factor in standards, controls, a duplications (or triplicate runs), you could get anywhere from 24 to 36 samples of blood analyzed. ...If A samples fails, you got to use another kit to confirm with the B sample.

Next factor in the costs of extraction and blood storage. There's labor involved in the collection and analysis, lots of supplies, storage, and likely shipping to factor in. The overhead on this is big.

So, to say that an EPO tests costs ~$800 wouldn't surprise me in the least.