What Happens when the Medicine Expires?

You have a severe headache. Aspirin or ibuprofen drugs are being searched all over the house. While searching, I found a leaf tablet in your table drawer. So I went to check the expiration date of the medicine before eating. But there is danger. The drug expired a few months ago. You must not take expired medicines. Usually, it is not right to take any medicine without the advice of a doctor, and you will not have the courage to take expired medicine there.

But what if you were taking expired drugs? Could your life be in danger? Or the reason you are going to take medicine, the headache would be gone? Or did nothing good or bad happen to your body? There are these questions. But have you ever wondered how the medicine expires? That is, what happens to the capsule or tablet after a certain period of time that it is no longer fit to eat?

Many times it is not even possible to get the necessary materials to save lives. But despite such a situation, many drugs in the world are wasted just because they are not used in time.

With that in mind, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a study at the request of the US military. The army sent them a large consignment of expensive drugs, which contained a variety of drugs that had been canceled due to expiration. In fact, the army has to save a huge amount of expired drugs every year and destroy those drugs worth crores of rupees after a certain period of time. So the main points of this study were two: saving the government money and examining the effectiveness of drugs stored in the army to see if they could be used in the future. 300 lots were tested under this study, where there were more than 120 drugs. Research has shown that hundreds of over-the-counter medications are still 90% effective. They are usable even 15 years after they expire.

In 1986, the FDA introduced the Self-Life Extension Program to see if the expiration date for standard drugs could be extended. And the results of this program are incredible. They have found evidence that many types of drugs can be extended and based on these results, the validity of various drugs has also been increased.

If this study brings such results, then where is the need to mention the term? In fact, the main reason behind the expiration date on the medicine is beyond our knowledge. A law passed in 1989 required pharmaceutical companies to give their drugs an expiration date. Until this date, companies will be responsible for the safety and effectiveness of their drugs. If you take medicine after that time, the effectiveness and complete safety may not be available. However, this period does not mean that the drug will be completely lost or completely lost its effectiveness after the day mentioned on the body.

Now the question may arise. Since manufactured drugs are known to be good even after expiration, what is the harm if companies increase the level of expiration a bit? The answer to this question can be twofold:

1. Business thinking: If the term of the drug is short. However, their stock will run out quickly. Because when one batch expires, new medicine will be needed. Therefore, this issue is going to cut the drug and increase the profit.

2. Research: Suppose a company gives them a drug for a period of 5 years. But within a year, they discovered a new formula to make the drug stronger. But they do not have the opportunity to apply the new formula to extend the tenure of their latest batch.

To that end, the FDA recommends that pharmaceutical companies use a reasonable amount of time.

However, there are many other types of drugs that do not follow this rule. Such as: bottled medicine, eye or nose drops, powder and skin medicine, etc. These are usually written 1 month after opening or 4 weeks after use. Because, after opening any medicine bottle or dropper, the manufacturing company has no responsibility for it.

So, can we take expired medicine if we want? The FDA says no. That cannot be done because you do not know how the medicine came to you. You can’t understand with the naked eye where it was stored or whether there was any change in the medicine after it had expired. Also, if you take other drugs after the expiration date, including sensitive drugs and antibiotics, there is a possibility that they will not work.

A box was left in a black cupboard around 1989. There were several types of drugs. It was found 30 years later. Everyone thought the medicine in the box was spoiled or poisoned. Lee Contrell, an employee of the California Poison Control System, could not resist the urge to try the drugs. He called Roy Gerna. The two were surprised to see the results of the test together. Even after 30 years, every expired medicine was still suitable for treatment. And the ingredients of the medicine are still appropriate.

Seeing such research and results, everyone is now looking to the FDA. They may be able to consider extending the expiration date by testing drugs through their ‘Self Life Extension Program.’