What does the shelf life of a drug mean?

Answers:
It means that the active ingedient in the drug hasn't been tested for efficacy beyond that point, or that testing has shown reduced efficacy beyond that point. In most cases the reason is the former, not the latter. Meaning that after the specified date the drug may be less effective than advertised, thereby requiring labeling showing known shelf life.In other words, if you have 500mg tablets of Prilosec (The Purple Pill) with an expiration date of March 1, 2007, that means that the drug has been tested to be effective as advertised from the time the process on that particular batch was complete until the expiration date.Consumption AFTER the expiration date doesn't indicate that the drug will have adverse effects. It indicates that the effects may be reduced.

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Means that beyond that date you should not consume the drug.

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Same as the date on a carton of milk.
It is guaranteed fresh %26 good until that date.

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How long the drug will last till it goes bad and non-edible.

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it is the length of time a drug is safe to consume. but it differs from expiry date. the shelf life means the quality is optimal and beyond that it is still safe to consume but quality is no longer guaranteed.

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the shelf life of a drug is the span of time when the drug is still effective and can be administered without any side effects

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I am a med lab technologist and patient care technician, I also have my home nursing degree, the expiry date is just that.it has expired.it wont kill you if you take it, beyong popular belief, pills do not go bad or get spoiled.it just loses its potency. The effectiveness of the drug is not guarenteed after that date.

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it's the expiration date. it can only be on the shelf for a certain amount of time before the potency goes down

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Shelf life of a drug product is defined as the length of time, under the specific storage conditions, the drug product remains within specifications established to ensure its identity, purity, quality, and strength.

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Let me give you an example. I don't know that you would consider hydrogen peroxide a legit "drug", but you may use it like a topical drug. Hydrogen peroxide has a half life. After a few years, any bottle of proxide solution will turn into a bottle of water (plus oxygen, which would probably slowly leak out.). Any drug you come across may have similar half lifes.. (although I can't say for certain what they would be, I'm not a chemist). Some drugs have a much longer storage life than others. I think asprin has an incredibly long shelf life. But the second factor is time itself. Some drugs are sensitive to moisture In the case of hydrogen peroxide, Ultraviolet exposure. The chances that any particular drug may have had something happen to it increase over time, therefore the likelyhood that any one pill will be as effective as when it was originally bought is deminished.Finally, drugmakers would like turnover, so its rather profitable for them to set limited shelf lifes. Please note: Antibiotics are netoriously short in shelf life. If you have old antibiotic ointments lying around, get rid of them because they won't do you any good.

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Shelf life is just that.It is the amount of time the store can keep it on the shelf.It loses some of its potential after that.

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