Sydney-based Pharmaxis is a company involved in the research, development and commercialisation of therapeutic products for chronic respiratory and autoimmune diseases.
The prevalence of asthma in elite athletes has grown sharply from nine per cent in 1988 at the Seoul Olympics to 21 per cent of all athletes at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and authorities estimate that a similar percentage of the about 10,000 athletes competing at Beijing will have the condition.
Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world but is taking serious measures to curb pollution for the Olympics, which commence on August 8.
The IOC's top medical official, Arne Ljungqvist, said recently that pollution at the Beijing Olympics posed no immediate threat to athletes' health but could affect world-class performances.
The IOC may be forced to postpone endurance events in Beijing such as the marathon if the pollution does not improve.
Ethiopian marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie, who suffers from exercise-related asthma, has said that he would not run the event because he feared Beijing's air pollution was a threat to his health.
Pharmaxis chief executive Alan Robertson said exercise-induced asthma could be a problem for elite athletes in Beijing.
"Long-term intense endurance training and environmental factors, such as allergens, chlorine derivatives, pollutants or cold air can increase the risk of developing exercise-induced asthma."
Dr Robertson said the IOC's endorsement of Aridol showed the usefulness of the test in tackling asthma worldwide.
"We are pleased that Aridol is becoming globally recognised as a valuable test for identifying airway hyper-responsiveness - a hallmark of asthma."
Aridol is also recommended in the World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines for testing athletes requesting to use asthma medication.
The IOC medical commission has found no evidence that the commonly used asthma treatments, known as beta-2 agonists, have performance-enhancing effects.
