How Long Medicines Really Last — Resources

Reference only — not medical advice. Expiration dates exist for a reason, and the “don’t rely” list below is where the date genuinely matters. When a medication counts, ask a pharmacist rather than a table.

The date printed on a medication is a conservative manufacturer date, not the day it fails. Decades of FDA testing on the military’s drug stockpile (the Shelf Life Extension Program) found most solid medications stay good for years past that date — while a specific short list does not. For the story of how that testing worked and what it found, read Most of your ‘expired’ medicine still works.

This page is the lookup table.

Usually still good — well past the printed date

Stored sealed, cool, and dry. The extra shelf life is real but variable; the figures below are what large-scale testing suggests, not a guarantee for your specific bottle.

Medication	Past the date?	Roughly how long
Sealed tablets & capsules (most)	Usually yes	Commonly years; military testing averaged ~5.5 years of extra shelf life, and sealed samples 28–40 years old were often still ≥90% potent
Ibuprofen, acetaminophen, most solid OTC pills	Usually yes	Years past the date if sealed and dry
Potassium iodide (KI) tablets	Usually yes	Very stable; extends well when sealed

Don’t rely on these past the date

Each fails for a physical reason — this is where the printed date should be treated as real.

Medication	Why not
Liquids, suspensions, reconstituted meds	Chemically less stable, and once mixed they grow bacteria. Reconstituted antibiotics last days, not years.
Aspirin	Degrades faster than most solid pills (found below 90% potency in testing).
Eye drops	The preservative that keeps them sterile wears out — contamination risk.
Insulin & refrigerated biologics	Degrade with both time and temperature.
EpiPen / epinephrine	Breaks down in solution; a weak dose can fail during anaphylaxis.
Nitroglycerin (chest-pain tablets)	Loses potency fast, especially once opened — when you can least afford it.
Inhalers (e.g., albuterol)	Lose potency over time.

Two rules that override the tables

Storage decides everything. The “lasts for years” data comes from ideal, sealed, climate-controlled storage. A bottle kept in a hot, humid bathroom degrades much faster and less predictably.
The risk is a weak dose, not poison. Expired solid drugs almost always just lose strength rather than becoming harmful — which is exactly why it’s fine for a painkiller and not fine for an emergency drug, where under-dosing can be the whole problem.

Sources and the full explanation are in the companion article, Most of your ‘expired’ medicine still works. Primary data: Lyon et al., J Pharm Sci 2006; Cantrell et al., Arch Intern Med 2012.