E-drug: Expired-shelf life medicines (cont)
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Suppose you have a batch of medicine where there is a print error on
the label, declaring that the content of active ingredient is only
half of what it really is. But you have heard about the error, and
although you do not have analytical equipment, you "know" that
otherwise the medicine is completely OK.
Would you donate it? Or rather, would you donate it without
relabelling it? And if you do relable, based on which authority?
Medicine is not only an active substance. It's the targeting device
(drug formulation), the packaging material, and the information (on
the label).
With professional knowledge one can judge what to do if some of these
elements are not correct. And in a donor-recipient context, this is
not a decision that the donor can take on behalf of some recipient.
The first element to expire on a medicine should indeed be the expiry
date itself. If not, there is something entirely wrong with the
expiry date.
Stein Lyftingsmo
Hospital Pharmacy of Elverum
N-2418 Elverum, Norway
phone +47-6243 8950
sjappe@apotek.no
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