E-drug: Expired Medicines (cont)
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Dear E-druggers,
As one of Geoff Stark's co-authors on the paper in the Pharmaceutical
Journal I offer the following response to the recent discussion. In an ideal
world, the need for shelf-lives would not arise. The pharmacist would simply
run a specific Star Trek-like probe over the medicine and ensure its
quality. In fact such instrumentation is not that far off but in the
meantime the drug companies err on the side of caution and assign
conservative shelf-lives partly because they have no guarantee their
products will not be exposed to extreme conditions of temperature and
humidity during storage and transportation. This means that in general the
use of medicines close to expiry is safe. Perhaps some of the heat generated
by this issue of using outdated medicines could be avoided if instead of
expiry dates, drugs like foods were assigned a "best before" date. This then
leaves their use to the discretion of the pharmacist or health professional
who in the light of their knowledge of drug stability and toxicology can
make an enlightened judgement for or against a particular medicine based on
the situation "on the ground". After all we are only trying to avoid waste
in the midst of need and outdated medicines are far from being "junk". If
one is hungry enough the "best before" date is the least of one's concerns.
Paul Fawcett
Email: paul.fawcett@stonebow.otago.ac.nz