The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates

#1

Hospitals and pharmacies are required to toss expired drugs, no matter how expensive or vital. Meanwhile the FDA has long known that many remain safe and potent for years longer.

The box of prescription drugs had been forgotten in a back closet of a retail pharmacy for so long that some of the pills predated the 1969 moon landing. Most were 30 to 40 years past their expiration dates — possibly toxic, probably worthless.

But to Lee Cantrell, who helps run the California Poison Control System, the cache was an opportunity to answer an enduring question about the actual shelf life of drugs: Could these drugs from the bell-bottom era still be potent?

Cantrell called Roy Gerona, a University of California, San Francisco, researcher who specializes in analyzing chemicals. Gerona had grown up in the Philippines and had seen people recover from sickness by taking expired drugs with no apparent ill effects.

“This was very cool,” Gerona says. “Who gets the chance of analyzing drugs that have been in storage for more than 30 years?”

4 Likes
#2

That sort of describes my medicine cabinet. Expiration dates are a legal requirement not something competent knowledgeable people thought up. Liquids I am more strict about but pills, powders and tablets should be fine if they still look fine

1 Like
#3

It makes me wonder how much perfectly good insulin is thrown out by pharmacies. The standard advice is to throw it away after one month at room temperature or one year in the frig. My experience is that it lasts far longer than this and it only slowly becomes less effective. Hot conditions will ruin it, however.

1 Like