Zolpidem Shelf Life

How many years will Zolpidem tartrate (Ambien 10mg) be effective after its expiration date?

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According to FDA reports, it starts to lose efficacy one year after it is dispensed to you from your pharmacy. However, I recently had a nurse practitioner tell me that the U.S. is the only country that requires expiration dates on medications, I haven't researched to verify this, but I do know that there are quite a few others that don't, such as Mexico, India, Africa, and etc.

However, what I can tell you is that they do not become dangerous, once expired.

Additionally, Harvard University’s Medical Center states that “most of what is known about drug expiration dates comes from a study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years. What they found from their study is that 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date. So, the expiration date doesn't really indicate a point at which the medication is no longer effective or has become unsafe to use. While it's true that the effectiveness of a drug may decrease over time, much of the original potency still remains even a decade after the expiration date.”

Ref: health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/drug-expiration-dates-do-they-mean-anything

Hopefully this info can help you make an informed decision when it comes to your medication.

How old would you say they are?

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Mine are 4, 3 & 2 years old. Cleaning out my parents house, I found them along with meloxicam, gabapentin, tramadol 50 mg and some other stuff.

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Re: Verwon (# 1)

If you store your medication in an amber bottle in a cool dark place at all times, it retains it's efficacy much longer than the expiration date.

There was a study done on this recently, (maybe consumer reports ?) , stating this fact. You can google reliable sites to confirm.

My brother and sister in law are both Doctors, and they take their meds past the expiration date with no worries at all. Research it.

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The US is the only place that tells you this BS because the FDA is sleeping with Big Pharmacy and Big Pharmacy owns Congress and those who pass laws. The answer to your question is yes. They might say expiration but they are perfectly fine. I will guarantee you the date on the bottle is not the date on the Manufacturer bottle at the Pharmacy. Second. They only make this one year rule to make more money which puts more money into election campaigns and political pockets. Our country is owned by Big Pharma. I have taken meds over 10 years old and they worked just fine. Storage is everything, only in a dry and dark place with a normal air temperature.

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It is now late 2022. I am taking Zolpidem dtd 2014. Although I cannot verify that it has the strength it once had, it still seems to work as well as ever.

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