Pharmacy tech here - what I’ve been taught matches up with the above. The expiration date is basically the date that the manufacturer can guarantee 9X% of medication is 9X% effective. However there is also an arbitrary maximum of 5 years in the USA IIRC. The only drug that I know of that actively gets dangerous after expiration is tetracycline.
That’s not to say that it’s fine to use drugs after expiration, though. If you NEED a drug to work - e.g. medication controlling diabetes, blood pressure, etc - using older medication is more likely to not work, which can be dangerous for you.
Pharmacy tech here - what I’ve been taught matches up with the above. The expiration date is basically the date that the manufacturer can guarantee 9X% of medication is 9X% effective. However there is also an arbitrary maximum of 5 years in the USA IIRC. The only drug that I know of that actively gets dangerous after expiration is tetracycline.
That’s not to say that it’s fine to use drugs after expiration, though. If you NEED a drug to work - e.g. medication controlling diabetes, blood pressure, etc - using older medication is more likely to not work, which can be dangerous for you.