Posted by Larry Hoover on April 26, 2005, at 15:55:05
In reply to Expired Prozac, posted by university on April 25, 2005, at 13:33:19
> I've always been wary of drug manufacturers' seemingly arbitrary designation of when a drug becomes "expired." I know that some drugs potentiate over time--and others diminish in potency.
>
> I have tons of Prozac samples, but they all have expiration dates from 1998-1999. Does anyone know with any certainty in what way bubble/foil encased, encapsulated fluoxetine might change (if at all) over the course of a few years?
>
> Thanks.The expiry dates are obligatory, based on government regulations. The manufacturer warrants that the medication will have its purported safety, efficacy or good quality *at least* until the expiry date, under reasonable storage conditions.
Now, I doubt that a med that once had a 3 or 4 year expiry date is suddenly going to start decomposing the day after the calendar flips a page.
Given reasonable storage conditions (out of direct light, away from high temps, reasonably low humidity), there is no reason to suspect that expired meds will not have similar characteristics to those just recently manufactured....but for those few drugs we know have limited shelf-life....mostly antibiotics, but some more common drugs....e.g. aspirin (if they smell like vinegar, they're garbage).
There are numerous articles in Pubmed, but none with abstracts. It's frustrating.
Pharmaceutical companies routinely ship drugs at or near expiry to countries of the third world, as humanitarian aid. (I'm sure they get a nice tax deduction for their efforts, too.) I've never seen any evidence that this practise leads to harm or adverse events.
As noted by others, the US military has vast warehouses full all sorts of things, and sometimes it is only the military's determination of shelf life that informs all the rest of us.
I wouldn't have the slightest qualms about using expired antidepressants (again, assuming proper storage). But then again, I'm inherently cheap. I don't like spending money I don't have to.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:489291
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050423/msgs/489913.html