Do drugs really expire?
AS EXPENSIVE as medications are today, this question is most relevant. And even if they were free, no one would want to throw away and waste such valuable items if they were still potent.
Yes, drugs do expire and lose their potency and effectiveness at some point. But the issue is whether the expiration date on the drug container the endpoint at which it is totally useless and should be discarded.
Many of us have probably faced the dilemma where we had an upset stomach, headache, or diarrhea, and the only drug we found in our medicine cabinet had an expiration date past a month or a year or two ago. Is the medication still potent? More importantly, is it even safe to take it?
The Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide sourced a column published in Psychopharmacology Today to provide clarification on this important issue.
The expiration date printed on the medication box and or bottle really stands for a certain “legally required” information, but not what it actually infers, and not what we might think it means.
When the expiration date printed on the medication container has passed, most of us will surely think the drug is expired and worthless, and throw the medication away.
In 1979, a law was passed in the United States requiring drug manufacturers to stamp an expiration date on their products, the date at which they can guarantee the full potency and safety of the drugs.
The information we have in our column today about this issue came from a study conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration, per request of the US military.
Since the military has a massive and expensive stockpile of medications, which it has to discard and replace every few years, the research was done for
obvious economic incentive.
The study revealed that “90 percent of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date,” retaining most of their original potency.
Following this scientific investigation by the US-FDA, it is apparent that the expiration date does not stipulate the exact date at which medication is no longer effective or has become unsafe.
According to the Harvard Guide, “medical authorities state expired drugs are safe to take, even those that expired years ago.” While the potency diminishes with time, 90 percent of the medications are generally still effective, even “15 years after their expiration date,” as we quoted earlier.
Of course, there are some exceptions. There are drugs whose stability and potency diminish faster and last shorter. Examples of these are nitroglycerin, insulin, liquid antibiotics. Tetracycline was listed as a rare exception, still controversial.
The report further stated that excluding the above, “most medications are as long-lasting as the ones tested by the military.”
If the “expired” pain pills taken still works, or the “expired” antihypertensive medication continues to control the blood pressure well, or the “expired” anti-diarrhea drug still controls diarrhea, obviously they are still potent, effective, and useful. So, why throw them away?
One way to help preserve the potency of medications is to keep them in a cool dark place or refrigerated. Sunshine and heat diminish the potency of drugs.
Hopefully, the money-saving information above will be useful when you are confronted with this particular issue about expiration date of medications. If in doubt, consult with your physician or simply buy new stock of the drug.
Vaccine that prevents cancer On November 7, 2005, we introduced our readers to a revolutionary and soon-to-be-released vaccine that was found to be effective in preventing cancer of the cervix (mouth of the womb) almost 100 percent. It was eventually approved by the US FDA in late 2009 and widely available today.
In the United States, about 12,710 new cases of cervical cancer are discovered each year, and about 4,290 of these women die of this malignancy. Altho much rarer, anal, oral, and penile cancers, like cervical cancer and cancer of the vagina and vulva, are caused by human papilloma virus (HPV).
The wonder vaccine is Gardasil (Merck) in the United States and another one is Cervarix (GlaxoSmithKline) in Europe.
The commonest side effects of the vaccine, which are usually mild, are itching, pain, redness, swelling and bruising on the injection site, and headache and fever.
The Gardasil vaccine is recommended for young girls (9-26) before they become sexually active. The objective is to prevent them from getting HPV and spreading the virus to future sexual partner(s).
Since boys are part of the health equation, the question is whether to give the vaccine to the boys of the same age, in order to completely break the cycle of HPV infection.
In view of new studies that suggest the vaccine might be effective for other forms of cancers, the idea of giving he shots to boys also became more attractive.
The US FDA in December 2010 approved the vaccine for boys of the same age group. Actually, while it reduces the risk of developing non-cancerous genital warts, penile and anal cancers from HPV, these diseases are much rarer than cancer of the cervix among women. While the benefits for the girls are overwhelmingly clear, the uncertainty that the vaccine will be benefit their sons and the high cost of the vaccine are causing mothers to be reluctant to submit their sons to this vaccination campaign.
“If all we did was prevent genital warts, that would be cause for celebration,” said Dr. Joel Palefsky, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.
Unfortunately, some uninformed or misinformed parents, even in the United States, are unwisely denying their daughters this cancer-preventing and life-saving vaccine because of unfounded fears.
Vaccine to prevent diseases, especially deadly ones like cancer, could conceivably eradicate cancer from our midst or at least minimize and control cancer like what vaccine has done against small pox, polio, chicken pox, tetanus, diphtheria, etc.
The world looks forward to more vaccines that can prevent cancer and all other diseases, instead of treating them. But unless we take advantage of the great advances in science and medical technology in our battle against illnesses, all these state-of-the-art discoveries in medicine will be useless and not benefit us.
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