freshness of prescription medicine?

Question

prescription medicine

Answer 1

If medications are dispensed in the original packaging (from the manufacturer) and stored at the proper conditions (room temperature, protected from light & moisture), then they are typically good until the manufacturer-set expiration date. However, when a pharmacist dispenses a medication in a typical vial used by most pharmacies, these vials are typically amber in color (and semi-transparent, not opaque to light), also they are less air-tight, and are not guarenteed to be good until the same date, since the vials are not as "good" as the original packaging. Therefore, the expiration date of one year is generally recommended. Furthermore, it all depends on how a patient stores his/her medication. Also, pharmacies dispense many meds every day. Sometimes a patient's medicine may come from two or more bottles/lot numbers with different expiration dates (although always the same manufacturer). It is just safer to recommend a conservative expiration date. Some medications lose potency (strength) after they expire. Other medications may become toxic. Sometimes it is unknown exactly what reaction will occur. That is why it isn't recommended to take expired medication. It isn't just because we want to waste "good" medication or make more money. It is because patient safety is a concern. We generally err on the side of caution. (Of course, it is your choice if you want to experiment on your own body.)

Answer 2

"Manufacturers put expiration dates on for marketing, rather than scientific, reasons," says Mr. Flaherty, a pharmacist at the FDA until his retirement last year. "It's not profitable for them to have products on a shelf for 10 years. They want turnover."
As things stand now, expiration dates get a lot of emphasis. For instance, there is a campaign, co-sponsored by some drug retailers, that urges people to discard pills when they reach the date on the label.
And that date often is even earlier than the one the maker set. That's because when pharmacists dispense a drug in any container other than what it came to them in, they routinely cut the expiration date to just one year after dispensing. Some states even require pharmacists to do this.
Meanwhile, poor countries -- under urging from the World Health Organization -- often reject drug-company donations of much-needed medicines if they are within a year of their expiration dates.