Can expired medicine be consumed ?

 Can expired medicine be consumed ? You have a severe headache. Drugs like paracetamol are being developed. He searched and found a tablet. Before taking the medicine, the eyes suddenly went to the period, there is a problem. The medicine expired several months ago. Do not take expired medicines. Generally, it is not right to take any medicine without doctor’s advice, no one will have the courage to eat expired medicine. But what are the consequences of taking expired medicine? Could it be life threatening? Or the disease for which taking medicine will not cure it? Such questions often pop into our minds.

Treatment is expensive in third world countries like India. But every year a lot of medicines are wasted all over the world just because of expiry. With this problem in mind, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a study at the request of the US military. Army sent 300 lots of expired medicines to them for testing.

The main objective of this study was to save the government money and to verify the effectiveness of the drugs that the army has and to see if they can be used in the future. The study found that more than 100 discarded drugs were still 90% effective. They are usable even 15 years after the expiry date!

Lee Cantrell, an employee of the California Poison Control System, conducted such an experiment in 1969 on a box of medicine stored in a cupboard. It contained several types of drugs. It was found after 30 years. Lee Cantrell joined Roy Gerna in this study. Roy Gerna studied chemistry at the University of California. Roy Gerna himself grew up in the Philippines. As a child, he saw people there recovering by consuming expired medicines. The two tested together and were surprised to see the results. After 30 years each expired drug was still suitable for treatment. And the medicinal ingredients are still appropriate!

So why is there an expiration date on the medicine packet? There is a law behind it.

The law, passed in 1979, required drug companies to put an expiration date on their drugs. However, this period does not mean that the drug will completely spoil or lose its effectiveness after the specified day.

Apart from the expiry date, the batch number of the medicine is given on the packet. And the duration is said to be 12-60 months from the date of manufacture. In this case, the company will have all responsibility on the medicine in that batch till the period written on it.

However, this rule does not apply to all medicines. Bottled medicines, eye or nose drops, powders and topicals etc. They are usually labeled to expire 1 month or 4 weeks after opening. Because, the effectiveness of all these drugs is dependent on light, heat, humidity and storage method. Therefore, the effectiveness of the drug may decrease after 1 month of opening. And then using it is reasonable to not get results. Again, after 2-3 weeks of opening the eye or nose drops, bacteria can attack them. So they are encouraged not to use them after a long time.

So can you eat expired medicine if you want?

The FDA says no. Because, it is not possible for the common man to understand with the naked eye how the medicine was stored or if there was any change in the medicine after the expiry date. Also, some other medicines, including sensitizers and antibiotics, may *may* not be effective if taken after the expiry date. As a result, the disease can become life-threatening. As a precaution, the FDA advises not to take critical illness medications after the expiration date has passed. However, the entire world is looking at the FDA after seeing the results of expired drug tests. They may be able to decide on extending the expiry date by testing the drug through their ‘Self Life Extension Programme’. As a result, treatment for the drug crisis in Asian and African countries will not stop. And many poor people will be saved from losing their lives due to lack of treatment.