The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates
propublica.org
The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates
1–10 of 275 posts
Re: The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates
#2I'm glad people are contacting the FDA to try to get them to extend drug expiration dates, but this article gives me the impression that after the FDA fails to reply, or replies non-committally one way or another, people give up. Have any of the efforts involved tried to move up the chain of command to Congress? The FDA might not seem to be willing to move on the issue, but if one could get one's senator or representative to care, that congressman probably has more means to get the FDA to act than the average person.
Re: The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates
#3It seems that a law simply allowing private testing of drugs for efficacy, the same way the federal government is allowed to, would go a long way to saving money here.
Hospital systems and HMOs are large enough to save millions for a bit of testing, and once enough data is gathered they can easily and safely adjust their retention policies.
Re: The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates
#4> The findings surprised both researchers: A dozen of the 14 compounds were still as potent as they were when they were manufactured, some at almost 100 percent of their labeled concentrations.
What kind of reporting is this? Anything less than 100% is not "as potent as when manufactured", and the sentence implies some of those dozen weren't close to 100%.
> The idea that drugs expire on specified dates goes back at least a half-century, when the FDA began requiring manufacturers to add this information to the label. The time limits allow the agency to ensure medications work safely and effectively for patients. To determine a new drug’s shelf life, its maker zaps it with intense heat and soaks it with moisture to see how it degrades under stress. It also checks how it breaks down over time. The drug company then proposes an expiration date to the FDA, which reviews the data to ensure it supports the date and approves it. Despite the difference in drugs’ makeup, most “expire” after two or three years.
That seems to be the problem. There was a procedure in place to set expiration dates scientifically, and it was ignored for some reason, limiting the legal shelf life of even the most stable compounds to a few years.
Re: The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates
#5It seems that a law simply allowing private testing of drugs for efficacy, the same way the federal government is allowed to, would go a long way to saving money here. Hospital systems and HMOs are large enough to save millions for a bit of testing, and once enough data is gathered they can easily and safely adjust their retention policies.
Good idea but I suspect, the FDA won't give up their ability to pick winners and losers anytime soon.
Re: The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates
#6The myth is that those dates on the side of most drugs are expiraration dates.
Re: The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates
#7The myth is that those dates on the side of most drugs are expiraration dates.
What?
Re: The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates
#8I always assumed that the expiration date was partly legal, in the way that you only have 1 year within which you can legally have the drug in your system.
I mean, if I am prescribed oxycontin, can I legally have the drug in my system for the rest of my life?
Re: The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates
#9The myth is that those dates on the side of most drugs are expiraration dates.
But mine explicitly say "EXP" beside the date.
Re: The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates
#10The myth is that those dates on the side of most drugs are expiraration dates.
But mine explicitly say "EXP" beside the date.
I believe the OP's point is that really isn't when it not be effective but when you are supposed to throw it away as per the FDA. It could very well be effective well past that expiration date.