1 month expired Ribavirin

[St. George]

I had a lapse in receiving my Ribavirin ( Insurance difficulties) and so my doc gave me about a 2 month supply of Riba which  I took it home and realized it expired 1/08.  Has anyone here heard from their doc that riba keeps its potency even after its expiration?

[koala68]

May I ask you the name of your insurance? Same problem happened to me last year exactly 6 month after starting treatment and it's likely that they did that on purpose to try to drop people from treatment.
You should be glad your doctor could find this Riba for you ahead of time!
Frankly, the fact that the Riba expired by just a few days is not going to have any negative impact on you if you take it. Drug companies put a lot of safety margin on the expiration date. The Riba was good on Dec 31 at 11:59... it will likely still be good on Jan the 1st or in February!
On the other hand, not taking it will most likely jeopardize your entire treatment. For it to be effective, you have to avoid any interruption, or you might have to do it all over again!

[Facta_non_verba]

The reason I said that the samples that are expired by one month should be good is that drug manufacturers choose the expiration date more for economic reasons than for safety. A study done quite a while ago by the military to see if they really needed to replace drugs every two or three years or if they could save a few billion and use them past the expiration date. The vast majority of the drugs were still potent SEVERAL YEARS past the expiration date.

So much better for drug companies to have hospitals and pharmacies throw away expired drugs and buy new ones all the time, huh?

Jeff

[Anonymous225]

Yeh, its a hell of a quandry, there are people out there suffering that cant afford treatment and I have 5 shots and a bunch of Riba left.  I have thought about looking into what can legally be done for those less fortunate to not have as good as insurance as I do, or even worse, none at all.

Does anyone have any ideas? Does anyone else want to help?

Matt

[cruelworld]

i also have extra and can help if needed, just message me.

[nygirl7]

Honestly although I really don't "know" I would take it if the doctor didn't have anything else.  I don't really believe that it would be THAT expired at one month passed anyway you know?  I wouldn't think the efficacy would go down but also it's better than nothing. I would try not to sweat it too much.

What did the doctor say>?  I'm sorry that I don't have anymore - I gave it all away quite a while ago but I'm sure there are people around here would have and would be happy to help!

[St. George]

I have no unexpired riba only expired.  I'm not sure how long the insurance will be dragging its feet on this one.  The doc gave me the expired because thats all he had I believe.  I will be contacting you.

[FlGuy]

A few thoughts.  May be re-contact the doc to see if he has anything fresher.  Rather than suspending riba, I'd chance the expired stuff.  If necessary, contact me through the other capabilites of this forum (the member-to-member feature) and I might be able to help you out. At your current dosage how many days of unexpired riba do you have and how long do you think the refill difficulties will last?

[Facta_non_verba]

Assuming it was stored properly, it should be OK.

Jeff