Metabolife International, Inc. was a multi-level marketing company based in San Diego, California which manufactured dietary supplements. Metabolife's best-selling product, an ephedra supplement called Metabolife 356, once generated hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales. However, Metabolife 356 and other ephedra-containing supplements were linked to thousands of serious adverse events, including deaths, which caused the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban the sale of ephedra-containing dietary supplements in 2004.