Doping has been and will continue to be a huge bane on the sports world for as long as anyone plays sports. People will do anything to get that perceived competitive edge. We’ve seen it in baseball, football, basketball, and soccer, but the place that it is most prevalent but least reported — at least in America — is cycling. Yes, we all know about Lance Armstrong and his adamant refusals that he never used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). But even after he left the sport, doping was still prevalent.

Two cyclists found a way to get a PED directly from the manufacturer itself. Carlos Oyarzun of Chile and Fabio Taborre of Italy allegedly managed to purchase FG-4592, an experimental drug that increases production of red blood cells. This improves the oxygen-carrying potential of the cells, which improves the athletes’ endurance and makes them faster.

Both athletes allegedly got the drug directly from the manufacturer’s website, ordering it online and paying with a credit card. You’d think this would be forbidden, since anyone could do it, but the cyclists allegedly found a loophole — instead of saying they were doping cyclists, they told the manufacturers they were researchers who needed samples of FG-4592 for testing.

FG-4592 is allegedly only available for clinical trials being conducted by the manufacturers AstraZeneca and FibroGen. The drug is in the final stage of production but hasn’t been approved for sale or for human consumption. Yeah, let that soak in for a second. It’s not clear, according to Christopher Kelly, a spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration, speaking with the New York Times, what risks, if any, the cyclists are taking for ingesting the drug.

The drug is taken as a pill, which is different from other PEDs, which are usually injected into the skin. FG-4592 makes the body create more red blood cells, similar to the effects of EPO, which is a hormone that increases blood cell production and has been prevalent in cycling for years.

Both Oyarzun and Taborre have been suspended. Oyarzun was expelled from the Pan-American games after testing positive for the drug. Each tested positive for the drug after a single test. Officials are waiting for a backup sample that could clear both riders of wrongdoing. Oyarzun has publicly denied taking the drug.