Do Drug Expiration Dates Mean Anything? The Harvard Medical School’s Answer Will Shock You!
Have you ever gone to the place where you keep your prescription and over-the-counter drugs to look at their expiration dates? Do you throw out any of your medications because they have “expired” according to the manufacturer?
Well the Harvard Medical School looked into to expiration dates and their findings were to say the least shocking.
On August 29, 2020 Harvard Medical School’s Harvard Health Publishing released an article titled Drug Expiration Dates — Do They Mean Anything? The Harvard Medical School reported,
The big question is, do pills expire?
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This is a dilemma many people face in some way or another. A column published in Psychopharmacology Today offers some advice.
It turns out that the expiration date on a drug does stand for something, but probably not what you think it does. Since a law was passed in 1979, drug manufacturers are required to stamp an expiration date on their products. This is the date at which the manufacturer can still guarantee the full potency and safety of the drug.
Most of what is known about drug expiration dates comes from a study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years. What they found from the study is 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date.
So, the expiration date doesn’t really indicate a point at which the medication is no longer effective or has become unsafe to use. Medical authorities state if expired medicine is safe to take, even those that expired years ago. A rare exception to this may be tetracycline, but the report on this is controversial among researchers. It’s true the effectiveness of a drug may decrease over time, but much of the original potency still remains even a decade after the expiration date. Excluding nitroglycerin, insulin, and liquid antibiotics, most medications are as long-lasting as the ones tested by the military. Placing a medication in a cool place, such as a refrigerator, will help a drug remain potent for many years.
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The next time you face the drug expiration date dilemma, consider what you’ve learned here.
QUESTION: Why would pharmaceutical companies underestimate the expiration of their drugs?
ANSWER: Make more $$$$$ by getting you to throw away perfectly good drugs!
Today many are questioning what our three letter health agencies, e.g. FDA, DHS, and pharmaceutical companies are saying about drugs, including the various Covid vaccines and their side effects.
Many are concerned about the effectiveness of prescription and over-the-counter drugs and their side effects.
We highly recommend that individuals consult with their doctors to determine if a drug has truly expired, is effective and what are side effects, if any.
We have tended to trust our government agencies, especially those who deal with healthcare and disease control. However, many today are skeptical and even against following the advise of our government agencies.
As Ronald Reagan said, “Trust but verify.”
©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.
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