Current Scheduling Status
Year(s) and type of review / ECDD meetings
Drug Class
Recommendation (from TRS)
ECDD Technical summary
Mefenorex is the racemic N-chloropropyl analogue of amphetamine. Mefenorex is an amphetamine-like stimulant with anorectic activity. It appears to have less effect on the cardiovascular system than amphetamine and does not produce stereotypic movements in the rat. The immediate cause of death in rats is respiratory paralysis. There is no enhancement of lethality in grouped animals such as occurs with (+)-amphetamine. Typical sympathomimetic side-effects are observed in man. In man the drug is excreted partly unchanged and partly in the form of various hydroxylated metabolites. Under experimental conditions, mefenorex is self-administered to some degree (2 out of 5) by the rhesus monkey and shows similar discriminative stimulus effects to amphetamine in both monkeys and pigeons; the drug is less potent than amphetamine in both procedures. There are no data available for this drug on clinical abuse liability, no reported public health or social problems associated with its use, and no information related to abuse epidemiology. The drug is under some form of control in many countries. Mefenorex is used as an anorectic agent in the treatment of obesity and is marketed throughout the world. Some illicit trafficking in the drug has been reported.
On the basis of the data outlined above, it was the consensus of the Expert Committee that mefenorex met the criteria of article 2, paragraph 4, for control under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances and should be placed in Schedule IV of the Convention.
Mefenorex is the racemic N-chloropropyl analogue of amphetamine. Mefenorex is an amphetamine-like stimulant with anorectic activity. It appears to have less effect on the cardiovascular system than amphetamine and does not produce stereotypic movements in the rat. The immediate cause of death in rats is respiratory paralysis. There is no enhancement of lethality in grouped animals such as occurs with (+)-amphetamine. Typical sympathomimetic side-effects are observed in man. In man the drug is excreted partly unchanged and partly in the form of various hydroxylated metabolites. Under experimental conditions, mefenorex is self-administered to some degree (2 out of 5) by the rhesus monkey and shows similar discriminative stimulus effects to amphetamine in both monkeys and pigeons; the drug is less potent than amphetamine in both procedures. There are no data available for this drug on clinical abuse liability, no reported public health or social problems associated with its use, and no information related to abuse epidemiology. The drug is under some form of control in many countries. Mefenorex is used as an anorectic agent in the treatment of obesity and is marketed throughout the world. Some illicit trafficking in the drug has been reported.
On the basis of the data outlined above, it was the consensus of the Expert Committee that mefenorex met the criteria of article 2, paragraph 4, for control under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances and should be placed in Schedule IV of the Convention.
ECDD Recommendation
Inclusion in Schedule IV of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances
Link to full TRS
who_trs_729.pdf1.29 MB