Many of us must periodically bring the audit in their home medicine cabinets and get rid of different medications whose shelf life has expired a couple of months and even a year ago. It seems clear: not everyone has the education of the pharmacist, and risk your health do not want anyone. Hell if I know what’s happening with medicine, stayed in the Cabinet longer than the period. Meanwhile, American scientists conducted a study and came to the conclusion that a large part of the medicines is quite effective even decades after the expiration date.
Roy Heron at the University of California in conjunction with Lee Cantrell of the California service poison control conducted a study and analyzed 14 types of medicines, shelf life which expired at the end of 60-ies of the last century. Just when the Americans landed on the moon (or did, if you – a supporter of conspiracy theories). The list of drugs included antihistamines, analgesic drugs, stimulants and other drugs. What was the surprise of the researchers when it turned out that the effectiveness of drugs to this day it is almost 100% mark compared to the day when they were released.
The problem of delay of drugs is very relevant today in the world. Some large American clinics have the right to return the drugs that are close to the delay, their manufacturers, and to return part of the spent money on them. But even in this case, the clinic will lose approximately $ 200,000 each year. On average, due to expired medicines of the American healthcare system loses about $ 800 million a year.
Of course, the researchers in no case do not call us to what should not care about all security measures and begin to use expired drugs. Although many American readers have struck scientists with angry comments that they generally ignored the precaution and agitate people to be irresponsible. However, their unexpected discovery prompts a number of interesting thoughts. Including those associated with the clever marketing of big pharmaceutical companies. The research results were published in ProPublica.
Scientists dispelled the myth about the short shelf life of medicines
Sergey Grey