Registration Requirements for Importers and Manufacturers of Prescription Drug Products Containing Ephedrine, Pseudoephedrine, or Phenylpropanolamine

Résumé

The Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 (CMEA), which was enacted on March 9, 2006, requires DEA to establish an assessment of annual need for the importation and manufacture of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine. Because of the new CMEA mandates for importation, import quotas, and production quotas for these chemicals, DEA must revise its registration provisions. The changes made by the CMEA render current DEA regulations inadequate for two reasons. First, although DEA registers bulk manufacturers of the three chemicals in the United States and importers of the bulk chemicals, some of those chemicals are distributed to non-registered companies that process them into prescription drugs. Under the Controlled Substances Act, section 826, production quotas are available only to registered manufacturers. DEA cannot meet the CMEA mandate to establish annual need and import quotas, and then issue individual quotas for each of the chemicals unless all manufacturers manufacturing or procuring the chemicals and manufacturing drug products that contain the chemicals are registered as manufacturers, even if the distribution of the final drug products is not regulated.