When Does a Drug Expire?
The short answer is: No one really knows.
That’s because the “expiration date” found on a drug is merely a guarantee – made by its manufacturer to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – that the drug will retain effectiveness until that date. The FDA neither requires pharmaceutical to test further, nor to determine an actual expiration date.
“Expired Drugs”
Because the FDA does not allow dispensation of “expired” drugs, pharmacists are forced to throw away drugs that might still be effective. Replacing drugs that “expire” every two-to-three years might result in huge profits for the pharmaceutical industry, but it creates massive waste and higher costs for the government and consumers.
(It should also be noted that this system effectively removes any incentive pharmaceutical companies might have to determine actual expiration dates.)
In order to avoid the expense of routinely replacing costly stockpiles of medication, antidotes and vaccines needed in case of national emergencies, the FDA and the Defense Department came up with a testing program known as the Shelf Life Extension Program. Each year, selected drugs from the stockpiles are analyzed to determine whether their “expiration dates” can be extended.
Simply stated, if the analyses reveal the drugs to be clinically effective, they are given a new “expiration date.”
What Studies Have Found
Studies conducted on behalf of the federal government have shown that many drugs retain their effectiveness long past their “expiration dates.” Some even retain their potency many years afterward!
And despite the fact the FDA has known this for decades, it has shown no appetite for extending the Shelf Life Extension Program to the nation as a whole. Thus, clinics, hospitals, nursing homes and pharmacies continue to routinely dispose of drugs that are, in all likelihood, perfectly useful.
It is estimated that implementing this program – or one like it – on a national scale to reduce waste would reduce health care spending by as much as 25%!
Revisiting Expiration Dates
Needless to say, those kinds of savings would go a long way in reining in the rising cost of healthcare, which affects all of us.
Write to your representatives in Congress and urge them to implement a program to revise arbitrary drug expiration dates. It can eliminate waste and get prescription drugs prices under control. The model already exists.
And Because You’re Wondering…
Part II of this post will discuss whether or not you can safely take “expired drugs.”
Photo by Kendal James on Unsplash