Here is what a Vet told me about expiration dates. They aren’t allowed to sell meds past that date. It doesn’t mean the meds are bad.
I have had a box of Cerenia tablets for one of my dogs that is a year out of date. The last time she was there they asked me if I needed more. I told them I had a box but it was expired. He told me it was fine and to use it because while they can’t sell meds past the expiration date the meds are good. The emergency Vet told me the same thing.
I have four boxes of Ivermectin that expire sometime in ‘22. I’m not throwing them away.
This is correct as part of product validation the companies have to do shelf life testing to prove efficacy is maintained up to the expiration date that they state on the medicine.
There is a tradeoff between testing time and cost, time to get the product to market, actual duration needed to allow for product transit and time on shelf, and of course planned obsolescence.
A typical standard would be 2 years. I’ve always felt there was a market for someone to buy product and do life testing to double or triple the amount of time to prove efficacy beyond the time that is advertised. Then they could publish this information and request authorization from the government to relabel old stock with the new dates.
He told me it was fine and to use it because while they can’t sell meds past the expiration date the meds are good.