The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) board of directors took several actions March 17 intended to further the process toward the nationwide adoption of uniform medication rules, penalties, and testing.

The actions came during the RMTC's regular board meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

The board, with respect to the "schedule" of controlled therapeutic substances—the list of 24 medications at the center of the uniform medication rules—took took the following actions:

• Adopted a detailed set of protocols for adding to or amending the original list of 24 medications;

• Recommended to the Association of Racing Commissioners International (RCI) that the bronchodilator albuterol and the corticosteroid isoflupredone be added to the schedule;

• Recommended to RCI a reduction in the threshold for the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ketoprofen (or Ketofen);

• Recommended to RCI an increase in the withdrawal time guidance for the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug flunixin meglumine (or Banamine);

• Approved funding for the scientific analysis of five therapeutic medications at the request of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP); and

• Voted to join the AAEP in petitioning RCI to remove the restricted administration times and replace them with withdrawal guidance as originally proposed by the RMTC.

"These actions of the RMTC board, including recommendations to amend the schedule by adding two new medications to provide veterinary practitioners treatment alternatives and modifying the recommendations for two others, demonstrate what we have been telling the industry from the beginning: The uniform rules are not static but will be amended as new scientific research and development becomes available," said RMTC chairman Alex Waldrop