The military has tested many pharmaceutical drugs to long past their expiration dates and found them still efficacious;
I don’t doubt the military has done this; however, if the companies haven’t done the studies themselves then they cannot legally make the claim and can only put on what they have actually tested it to.
If you have a copy of the study please PM me, I’d love to read through it.
Is it ok to use medications past their expiration dates?
May 18, 2022
Is it ok to use medications past their expiration dates?
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The U.S. Air Force started a study in 1985 and later extended it to other military services in the early 1990s. The military had gathered a stockpile of medications worth more than a billion dollars that were close to or past their expiration dates. No one wanted to throw away expensive medications that might still be safe and effective. So, the drugs were extensively tested with oversight by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).The verdict? Most medications were still good nearly three years past their expiration dates
This looks like what I remember reading some time past, although I think one study even found medicines at least 10 years old were still effective.
While I have not kept documentary records, I have had decades of experience with this expiration phenomenon. Of course some common sense applies. Meds that have been subjected to abnormal environmental environments should be viewed suspiciously. Soft gels and powdery tablets will probably not age.
Hard tablets especially coated, are the best storage candidates. Keep in sealed dark glass containers with good tight lids. Store in dark cool dry location. I had some erythromycin tablets given to me by a friend who worked in a generic drug packaging company in the 1970s. I never figured to use them and put them away and forgot them mostly. I had a partly homeless person who had helped me in the yard about 2010. They had a severe tooth ache with swelling. I thought of the erythromycin and reluctantly gave them a five day series with a stern warning to go to a dental clinic and a warning that the antibiotic was old and probably wouldn't work. Within a few days their tooth and gums were normal.
I threw the rest away anyway right after that. I will look on my desk computer files and see if I ever obtained a copy of one of these studies.