&NA; In recent years, there has been a very active debate about the stability of drug products especially after exceeding the expiry dates. The regulatory authorities require comprehensive stability data for market approval. The shelf‐life obtained determines the expiry date, which is typically between 1 and 5 years and commonly set in a conservative manner. Conducting stability studies is a resource‐ and time‐consuming matter for the pharmaceutical manufacturer. Short shelf‐lives of drug products are also a challenge for managers of hospitals, nursing homes, and strategic national stockpile agencies which have to dispose of large quantities of outdated medicines every year. This conflict raises the question whether shelf‐lives are often longer than the labeled one. In the past years, the FDA has launched several programs for shelf‐life extension in order to defer replacement costs and to prevent drug shortages due to supply disruption. The aim of this review was to bring together the available literature of expired drug products as well as historical pharmaceutical relicts with an age of more than 80 years and to discuss the actual shelf‐life with regard to the respective dosage form and the affiliation of the drug class. It seems to be reasonable for a large portion of drugs to extend the expiry dates far beyond five years.

The question of the use of expired medication is a constant debate of many years most especially in a difficult environment. In this research, a literature review and reported practice of some countries are used. Findings show that some medications, if properly stored, remain safe to use after the expiry date and this sometimes could be extended by many years. However, the pharmaceutical manufacturers have an interest in producing products with short shelf life. To dispose of expired ones is to generate a sale and therefore put the profit into the improvement and development of new products for the benefit of medicine. This paper emphasizes the benefit of use of some drugs after expiration and the interest for the pharmaceutical industry to dispose of expired drugs and to shorten their shelf life.

Pharmaceutical expiration dating advice given by retail pharmacists. There is presently no uniform legislation requiring or standardizing the expiration labeling of prescription drug containers dispensed to patients by retail pharmacies, and most communities in the United States do not require such labeling. Expired medications can suffer changes in toxicity, potency, or palatability. Inadvertent use because of incomplete labeling can impact negatively on good patient care. A telephone survey of 124 retail pharmacists in a community suburban to New York City was conducted using a prepared script. When a caller requested "do not use later than" advice for 10-mg propranolol tablets said to have been purchased 6 months earlier, responses ranged from 3 to 60 months. Most pharmacists recommended discarding medications 1 year (31 percent) or 2 years (27 percent) following purchase, but fewer than one-fourth of those responding attempted to verify expiration dates before answering.