AboutDr. Ravindra Bhaskar Ghooi Expertise I can provide information on drugs and medicines, their actions, uses, interactions and adverse effects. To avoid confusion, generic names of
medicines may please be provided. I am a pharmacologist, having worked
on animal and human pharmacology, and presently I am the Dean of Bilcare Research Academy, where we teach courses on clinical research. We dont work on saturdays and sundays, hence questions reachng me on these days will be replied on Monday, please bear with me.
Question Please advise on the real shelf life of this medication. I have several tablets left over from a minor injury from 3/2/07. The bottle advises to discard after one year, but I have heard from pharmacists that this medication has a much longer therapeutic strength. Thank you.
Answer Hi Doug,
If the bottle says one year, then it is one year. It is another fact that the product can be used for about two years without significant loss of activity. None the less the shelf life remains the same. Shelf life is defined as the duration, until whch the chemical content of the activ pharmaceutical ingedient remains within the limits described by the pharmacopoeia.
Since rar drugs might degrade into harmful substances (if improperly stored) we do not generally advice people to use expired products. Only if a person really cannot afford to buy a fresh stock this precaution is logical.
Ravi Ghooi
