ProPublica has been researching why the U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world. One answer, broadly, is waste — some of it buried in practices that the medical establishment and the rest of us take for granted. We’ve documented how hospitals often discard pricey new supplies, how nursing homes trash valuable medications after patients die or move out, and how drug companies create expensive combinations of cheap drugs. Experts estimate such squandering eats up about $765 billion a year — as much as a quarter of all the country’s health care spending.
What if the system is destroying drugs that are technically “expired” but could still be safely used?
In his lab, Gerona ran tests on the decades-old drugs, including some now defunct brands such as the diet pills Obocell (once pitched to doctors with a portly figurine called “Mr. Obocell”) and Bamadex. Overall, the bottles contained 14 different compounds, including antihistamines, pain relievers and stimulants. All the drugs tested were in their original sealed containers.
The findings surprised both researchers: A dozen of the 14 compounds were still as potent as they were when they were manufactured, some at almost 100 percent of their labeled concentrations.
“Lo and behold,” Cantrell says, “The active ingredients are pretty darn stable.”
Cantrell and Gerona knew their findings had big implications. Perhaps no area of health care has provoked as much anger in recent years as prescription drugs. The news media are rife with stories of medications priced out of reach or of shortages of crucial drugs, sometimes because producing them is no longer profitable.
Tossing such drugs when they expire is doubly hard. One pharmacist at Newton-Wellesley Hospital outside Boston said the 240-bed facility is able to return some expired drugs for credit but had to destroy about $200,000 worth last year. A commentary in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings cited similar losses at the nearby Tufts Medical Center. Play that out at hospitals across the country and the tab is significant: about $800 million per year. And that doesn’t include the costs of expired drugs at long-term-care and retail pharmacies and in consumer medicine cabinets.
Article is much longer and is a few years old but thought it was interesting. Found it when looking into effectiveness of some expired medicine.
Stored properly and kept from extremes of heat and cold they would probably be good for a century or two................
“Mr. O-bocell and BAMA-dex.”
I thought you were joking when I first saw those names. Holy cow!
This article is most correct. However, a bit of caution is advised. Their are some drugs that truly do have a very short shelf life, and this in particular are biologicals.
Most drugs if put in a freezer will last many years beyond their expiration date. Do not do this with biologicals. In our pharmacy we keep the biologicals in the refrigerator and some in an extremely cold freezer dependent on what biological it is. If it is a biological drug the expiration date is to be respected.
charlie the pharmacist.
Of course not
These are dense stable compounds. In sealed jars
Same with liquid opiates. Killed my friend. Took a swig off 60 yr old opiate based medicine. Dead Very sad
You failed to mention the prime mover
Greedy lawyers persueding a jury that this or that or age of drugs or change in the condition of factory wrapped materials are the reason for all you mentioned. The genuine fear of lawsuits by greedy lawyers is the reason for exhorbiant costs and perceived waste.
America is a tyraanny of lawyers