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E-DRUG Summary of Dissertation on Expired Drugs and Donations
Sender: owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org
Precedence: bulk
Errors-To: owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org
Dear E-druggers, here is the summary of my dissertation.
Summary
Objective
To ascertain what happens to drug products that have passed their expiry
date.
To recognise the situations where expired drug products are more beneficial
to the patient than no drug product.
Introduction
In many parts of the world where drugs are not readily available, expired
drugs products are often the only option for treating medical conditions.
In these cases the medical staff need as much information about the drug
products they are using as possible. Research into the safety and
effectiveness of expired drug products in these circumstances is of great
importance.
Major findings
1) On the whole, in temperate regions, the expiry dates of drug products
are conservative.
2) Very few drugs become dangerously toxic when they have passed their
expiry date.
3) There are a small number of drugs that are adversely affected by
transportation and storage in tropical climates, in some cases this can
cause a decrease in potency below market authorisation limits for use, even
before the expiry date.
Conclusion
In many circumstances expired drug products are a better option for
treating medical conditions than no drugs.
Golden rule: If the dispensary manager would not be prepared to take the
expired drug product, it should not be given to the patient.
The main drugs of concern are:
When expired:
Aspirin, Tetracycline, paraldehyde,
In tropical climates:
Ergometrine and methylergometrine, suxamethomium chloride, adrenaline (and
retinol).
Best wishes
Naomi Adams <adamsnr@hotmail.com>
Pharmacy Pre-reg. Cardiff. UK.
[Moderators Comment This is a brief summary of what is an interesting
dissertation. For those with access I would encourage E-Druggers to read the
full dissertation. It is quite short and is very readable. The site is
http://members.tripod.co.uk/naomi_adams/pagea.html The Section 10.3 of the
dissertation has a good description of how to avoid using expired drugs.
This is on http://members.tripod.co.uk/naomi_adams/page39.html.
I think that the issue is not whether it is safe to use expired drugs but
whether it should ever be necessary to use expired drugs. If a procurement,
storage and distribution system functions efficiently there should be no
need to use expired drugs. The most common cause of expiry that I have seen
is the ignorance of the First In First Out (FIFO) rule. New stocks sre put
on the front of the shelf and these are used while the stocks at the back
expire. So solving the use of expired drugs, in my opinion, is an issue of
management rather than pharmaceutical science. Richard Laing Co-Moderator]
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