Hello! I have been a doctor for 21 years. My name is Georgy Olegovich Sapego. In this article I will tell you about a very, very long time stored medicines.
It is a pity for everyone to throw away expensive expired drugs.
This was checked by the military at one time. They always had large stocks of medicines that needed to be updated regularly. It turned out that of a hundred different drugs, approximately 90% remained effective even after 15 years of storage.
What does the expiration date of a medicine mean?
It ensures that the medicine stays active if stored properly. That's right - it means in a dry, cool and dark place. That is, it will not work to save the tablets in the car.
It is clear that drug manufacturers put in their shelf life some kind of correction for foolishness. Because sometimes people do not read any paper at all and do not know how to store medicines.
Sometimes there are more of them than necessary
There is such an interesting feature. When the activity of drugs was checked, it sometimes turned out to be more than 110% of the indicated amount of the drug.
Maybe the manufacturer wants to keep the drug longer, or maybe he wants to present his branded tablets as more effective. There are different explanations. If such tablets have already been in bed for 10 years, then it is difficult to imagine what concentration was in them on the day of production.
Drug manufacturers are interested in having their products regularly purchased. But even they confirm that the drug remains effective in the last month of the shelf life.
Medical professionals, who have their own head on their shoulders, are well aware that a medicine can be stored for years without significant loss of effectiveness.
There are exceptions like nitroglycerin, insulin, or antibiotics in injection solution that just break down over time. But most drugs can be put in the refrigerator, and they will sit there quietly for ten years.
Usually, preparations in tablets and capsules are stored better than solutions in ampoules and vials. If the solution does not become cloudy and does not change color, then it may well be that it is still effective.
There are also many drugs with a narrow therapeutic interval. This means that they have the right dose somewhere near the toxic one. They will either not work or you can get poisoned. In this case, it is better to adhere to the expiration dates.
Decreased efficiency
It is clear that the drug will lose its effectiveness on the same day it is taken out of the pharmaceutical factory. But this process is almost always very slow and gradual.
I liked the research that the US military started. They found that the drugs remained active for an average of 66 months after the expiration date, and the deadline they confirmed was 278 months. Moreover, everything is strict with the military, and the medicines were stored in ideal conditions.
And this is not the longest time. One study tested a sample of 14 drugs. It turned out that 12 of them retained their full activity 336 months after the expiration date, and 8 of them even after 480 months. The authors themselves say that they would never have been able to confirm whether these drugs were stored in ideal conditions, so the timing could have been pushed back.
What happens
It turns out that insulin, nitroglycerin and antibiotics in solution cannot be stored longer than expected. Any modern and expensive biological drugs like genetically engineered antibodies will also quickly go bad. But a huge number of all kinds of pills are likely to remain effective for ten years.
It is said that drug manufacturers may be forced to test their drugs after several years in order to adjust shelf life.
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How to store medicines correctly
Where to dispose of unnecessary pills
