Some drugs have poor stability, and are susceptible to environmental factors such as light, air, temperature and humidity during storage, which reduces their efficacy, increases their toxicity, and even cannot be used medicinally. In order to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the drug, it is necessary to specify the expiration date of this type of drug, that is, the period during which the drug will not change in quality in accordance with the conditions specified in the drug instructions.
These drugs are broadly divided into the following categories:
antibiotic
This kind of drug accounts for a considerable proportion of the expiration date of drugs, and the expiration date is generally 2~4 years, such as penicillin, erythromycin and other preparations.
Biologics
It refers to bioactive preparations made of microorganisms, parasites, animal toxins, and biological tissues as starting materials, prepared by biological processes or separation and purification technologies, and controlled by biological and analytical techniques to control the quality of intermediate products and finished products.
This kind of drug also occupies a certain quantity, such as vaccines, various enzyme preparations, etc., the validity period is generally 1~2 years, and a small amount of lyophilized products can reach 5 years.
Drugs that are unstable in nature and easy to oxidize and decompose and change color
The number of such drugs is small, such as nitroglycerin preparations, epinephrine hydrochloride injection, etc., and the validity period is generally 1~2 years.
The Drug Administration Law stipulates that drugs with an expiration date must indicate the expiration date, and there are two ways to indicate domestic drugs:
Indicate the expiration date or expiration date
There is a difference between the two, and the difference in time should be one month, and attention should be paid to the difference.
For example, if the two drugs are also marked with the words 2017.11, if the drug is marked with an expiration date, it means that the drug is valid within November 30, 2017, and if the previous label is an expiration date, it means that the drug is valid before October 31, 2017 and will expire on November 1, 2017.
Only the specified number of years of the validity period is indicated, and the use is calculated according to the production batch number
The batch number of domestic drug production is mostly marked with 6 digits, such as "the expiration date is 2 years, and the batch number is 970617", which means that the drug is effective on June 17, 1999: the first two digits of the 6-digit number indicate the year, the middle two digits indicate the month, and the last two digits indicate the day. Some drugs are also marked with a lot number after the 6-digit number, such as 971125-02.
The Drug Administration Law stipulates that drugs that have exceeded their expiration date shall not be reused. In order to strengthen the management of drugs with expiration dates and ensure that drugs play a role within the expiration date, the following points should be grasped:
01
Drug supply units should strictly follow the relevant regulations to manage and use expired drugs, reduce and avoid the phenomenon of drug expiration and invalidation, and prevent unnecessary waste. When the drug expires, it should be written off. The treatment method is generally deep burial; Tablets should be broken to prevent reuse.
02
When the family storage of drugs exceeds the expiration date, they must be disposed of according to the above methods, and generally should not be used blindly, let alone resold to others, giving criminals an opportunity to take advantage of and becoming a source of trouble for manufacturing counterfeit drugs and endangering people's health.
03
The prescription of expired drugs is generally controlled in 3~7 days according to the needs of the condition, and the family spare small medicine box should be stored as little or no expiration date drugs as possible.
Director of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine
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Please use the prescription under the guidance of a physician.
The author of this article is Lu Xiaoqing
Editor: Chaoyang