Meldonium can take months to leave body, says drug maker

A number of athletes say they took the cardiac drug before it was banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Meldonium has been in the spotlight since Russia's former world number one tennis player Maria Sharapova stunned the sporting world by announcing earlier this month that she had failed a doping test for the drug after a loss to Serena Williams at this year's Australian Open. Sharapova, who is provisionally banned while the International Tennis Federation (ITF) investigates, said she had been taking the drug for 10 years for health reasons and had not realized it had been placed on WADA's banned list on Jan. 1.