Expert: Dr. Tatiana Yatsenko, PharmD - 5/17/2007

Question
Hi, My wife was given Amoxicillin 250 few days ago to treat the UTI, she had been taking it 3 times a day since last Thursday (10-May-2007) (17 capsules). We suddenly noticed on (16-May-2007)  that the medicine has expired in September 2006. We were greatly worried as she is 18weeks pregnant so we rushed to the Hospital and the GPs did BP checks and temperature etc and said the UTI has not gone away as the medicine won't be as effective as it has gone past its expiry date and won't cause any adverse effects on the Unborn. Is this true ? Can we beleive this ?  should we get something done now i.e, scan etc ? any answers is greatly appreciated. And they have now given Amoxicillin 500 within the expiry date (obviously).  

Answer
Hi Muthu,

Thanks for your question. Unfortunately, there is no data regarding expired meds. Manufacturers guarantee the "efficacy" of a certain med through the expiration date. Anything after that date, drug is considered expired, efficacy is not guaranteed. Therefore, it is possible that the antibiotic has lost some of its "power." It is also possible that the bacteria that caused your wife's UTI was not covered by amoxicillin, and she needed another antibiotic. As far as possible harm done to the baby...there is no data. Theoretically speaking, there should not be any problems, however, there is no proof of that.  You could possible send out the amoxicillin to a lab where they can do a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analyses, and compare it to a "dated" capsule.

If you have any further questions, please ask.

Hope everything turns out all right for you guys! Good luck with the baby!

Dr Tatiana