In November 2005, it came to light that the DEA had given the go-ahead for the importation of up to 99,000 bottles of the prescription drug Zyprexa (propoxyphene, its active ingredient), produced by the giant of the drug industry Pfizer (PFE). Prior to this, Pfizer had said that there would only be 20,000 90mg tablets available every shipment of Zyprexa, with 1.7 million of those pills shipping worldwide. Pfizer stated that, even with the DEA's approval, it planned to keep distributing Zyprexa across North America. According to Pfizer, the DEA only approved the shipping of the medication in response to an FDA request; it was not done so in order to market a generic version of the medication.