On May 26, 2016, the State Council promulgated the Pilot Program for the Drug Marketing Authorization Holder System, announcing implementation of the marketing authorization holder (“MAH”) program in 10 pilot provinces and cities. Within the pilot areas, drug MAHs may entrust qualified contract manufacturing organizations to manufacture market-authorized drugs, regardless of whether the MAH possesses production capacity. Before this, MAHs were only allowed to use contract manufacturers in the case of insufficient production capacity.