Expired Regumate

Would you use properly stored Regumate that has expired?

Expired by a few months? What about a few years?

My husband works for a pharma company. He used to test the drugs for safety including the stability samples. They also tested the samples for a few months after the expiration date. Based on conversations with him for most drugs he is very comfortable using it for at least a few months after the expiration date. For an injectable he would want to make sure that it wasn’t cloudy. Generally the drug companies are pretty conservative on the expiration dates that they set to make sure they still comfortably pass their stability tests for potency when they expire.

For me I would be willing to use most drugs for up to about a year after expiration as long as there is no discoloration on an injectable. However for an injectable I would only be willing to do that if the vial was unopened. If the vial was partially used and then sat I would not be comfortable using it after expiration. I think that once a vial has been opened that it starts to lose shelf life- especially if the person that draws it up injects room air into the vial to make drawing it up easier.

3 Likes

I also work for a vet compounding pharmacy where we test all product for stability (we test potency beyond our expiry dates), and most compounds are ok after their expiry date. The worst thing is they may lose some potency (as in they tested at 100% when it was first made and perhaps degraded to 92% after 1 year). But even then, most still test around 100% even 2 years after expiry.

Most items like tablets and capsules (powder form) do not degrade at all. We have dating 10 years + ! Some liquids over time might degrade a little, some more than others depending on the base they are in and of course how stable the API is. There are many factors of course :slight_smile:

There are some medications that are a huge no no though - tetracycline comes to mind. Once its expired, do not use. It will do more harm than good. But there are not many that would do this…Most would/may not be as effective…

As for injections, if used, 28 days is protocol. We have that on all of our compounded sterile products, to dispose 28 days after opening.

1 Like