Both OTC, prescription, and professional use vials. Why do they expire? What exactly causes them to be no good?
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Companies will do shelf life studies and accelerated shelf life studies to see how long a product will last.
They will literally sit some pills on a shelf at room temperature for a few years, test the chemical breakdown, and make sure the data is comparable to the original data.
They will also do an “accelerated” shelf life by sitting the pills at an elevated temperature (like 100 degree F), and test that after a few months. They will then do some kind of calculation (1 month at higher temperature equals 3 months at room temperature, for example.)
What the companies don’t do is test the pills to see when they expire; as long as the pills can last 2 years (or whatever their standard is), they are happy. So the pharma companies do not know if the pills can last 3, 5, or 10 years, and they don’t want to know. They want you to buy new pills, and a shorter expiration date covers their ass in case something unforeseen happens down the line.
I want to make it clear that none of the numbers I used should be taken as gospel. I made them all up just to explain the process.
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