Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARNA)

[clawmann]

OK:

Here is the bare text of the APA: http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/bills/blapa.htm
The applicable section is Section 553, which governs what is called the "informal rulemaking" process.

And this is a 2011 Congressional Research Service report that provides a brief narrative description of the informal rule-making procedure on pages 1-2: http://www.wise-intern.org/orientation/documents/CRSrulemakingCB.pdf
Make sure to read footnote 12's description of what constitutes a meaningful "opportunity to be heard." Executive Order 12866 (from 1993) states that in most cases the public's opportunity to comment "should include a comment period of not less than 60 days.” However, after checking some of the DEA's recent notices of proposed rulemaking relating to scheduling actions I found both 30 day and 60 day comment periods.

A very recent proposed Schedule 1 classification allowed 60 days for public comments. It was published on October 17, 2012 and states comments must be received before December 17. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-10-17/pdf/2012-25509.pdf

However, the proposed Scedule IV classification in 2009 of Carisoprodol only had a comment period of 30 days. It was published on November 17, 2009, and comments were due by December 17, 2009. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2009-11-17/html/E9-27583.htm During the comment period someone asked for, and was granted,the right to present at a formal public hearing, and the holding of that hearing delayed the scheduling until the end of 2010. However this drug was already long approved in the US and so it continued to be available as an unscheduled drug while this was going on.

Most relevant to Belviq (I think) is this proposed Schedule IV classification of a newly approved drug (Fospropofol a/k/a "Lusedra"), whch also allowed only a 30-day comment period: The proposed rule was published on July 23, 2009 (74 FR 36424), and the comment period ended on August 24, 2009. http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/fed_regs/rules/2009/fr1006.htm
This link is actually to the final rule, which was published on October 6, 2009, about 76 days after the apearance of the proposed rule, and had an effective date of November 5, 2009, 106 days after the appearance of the proposed rule.


I hope this is sufficient for your purposes.