Chemist Maged Sedrak, who once supplied Stephen Dank, is found guilty of professional misconduct
A chemist who supplied supplements to Stephen Dank during the sports scientist's five-month stint with the Cronulla Sharks has been found guilty of professional misconduct and could be struck off within weeks.
The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found Egyptian-born compounding chemist Maged Sedrak supplied performance-enhancing drugs in excessive quantities, showed a lack of care, and often dispensed drugs without legal scripts.
On July 14, 2011, police raided Sedrak's Kogarah pharmacy, seizing steroids, compounds and other restricted substances.
Officials from the NSW Health Department also found 96 grams of testosterone at his Belgrave Compounding Pharmacy.
During that period Sedrak worked closely with another controversial figure, Dr Gregory Wilcox, who was previously disciplined for prescribing steroids to bodybuilders.
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Dr Wilcox was fined $25,000 in 2003 by a medical tribunal over the purchase and supply of a large quantity of anabolic steroids and hormones.
In 2007, Dr Wilcox faced another medical tribunal over the supply of testosterone.
He too was found guilty of professional misconduct and banned from prescribing, obtaining or possessing anabolic steroids and other drugs.
Sedrak supplied testosterone to two patients and filled nine prescriptions for human growth hormone where Dr Wilcox was the prescribing doctor "when he knew or ought to have known that Dr Wilcox was not appropriately qualified in the diagnosis and management of patients with growth hormone deficiency", the tribunal found.
Human growth hormone is used as an anti-ageing drug, however it is not officially approved for that purpose.
Over three days of questioning, Sedrak admitted more than 95 per cent of his Kogarah practice involved dispensing testosterone, progesterone and oestrogens.
The tribunal found Sedrak's evidence unreliable and criticised his "lack of candour" and "reckless indifference" in dispensing drugs such as human growth hormone.
Steroids supplied to Dr Wilcox were listed on slips of paper without lawful scripts.
Sedrak said Dr Wilcox also prescribed the human growth hormone drug somatropin for him and his wife.
The pharmacist said he took somatropin to strengthen his heart muscles after suffering two heart attacks.
His wife took it to overcome tiredness, Sedrak said.
'Gross departure from accepted medical practice'
The tribunal slammed Sedrak's cavalier use and supply of the drug as a "gross departure from accepted medical practice".
Sedrak said vials of testosterone found when police raided his pharmacy were being kept for a veterinarian named Dr Mark Thompson.
However, no doctor by that name could be found.
The tribunal later identified a Dr Andrew Thompson, who was removed from the register of veterinary surgeons in May 2007 following a complaint about the inappropriate supply of steroids.
The tribunal also referred to Sedrak's failure to report a break-in at his pharmacy in March 2011 and the supply of unlabelled amino acids to "a person in Castle Hill" which was kept off the books.
Amino acids are used by athletes to aid muscle repair and promote muscle growth.
The ABC can reveal these substances were supplied to Walter Reynolds, whose Castle Hill supplements business was also raided by police in 2011.
Officers seized steroids, peptides and a large amount of cash.
Reynolds received a 12-month suspended sentence and a 12-month good behaviour bond.
Sedrak prescribed 'excessive' dose of drug to 20-month-old
Police sources have confirmed that both Reynolds and Sedrak were targets of Strike Force Observer, established in December 2010 to investigate the alleged supply of prohibited drugs and other restricted substances by bikies and their associates.
The tribunal said Sedrak's failure to report a theft at his pharmacy was significant, given the drugs involved were often sold on the black market.
Sedrak's lawyer refused to comment on the case, but in August last year Sedrak told 7.30 ASADA had sought to interview him about his role in Dank's 2011 supplements program.
Sedrak told the program he would rather forget his dealings with Dank.
The ABC does not suggest that Dank has broken any laws in his dealings with Sedrak.
This is not the first time Sedrak has been disciplined by authorities.
He first came to the attention of the NSW Health Department in December 2006 after he dispensed a drug without a prescription.
In 2007, Sedrak filled a prescription for a 20-month-old child. The NSW Pharmacy Board found the dose was excessive.
In a separate case he provided medication for a 10-year-old girl without verifying the use or "therapeutic purpose" of the drug.
That same year he supplied antibiotic eye drops and ointment to a 20-month-old without a prescription.
A professional standards committee noted his failure to understand the uses and applications of certain drugs.
He was again suspended in 2012 and disciplined last year and is no longer registered as a pharmacist in New South Wales.
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