Why do medicines have expiry dates?

You should only take medicines that are within their expiry date. Expiry dates are put on medicines either at the time of manufacture or by the pharmacist who supplies them. They can be found on the medicine packaging or on the label.

After the expiry date medicines may be harmful or lose some or all of their effectiveness (ability to work).

If your medicine looks, tastes or smells different to when you first got it, take it to your pharmacist for advice.

Some medicines are given a short expiry date such as:

• Prepared antibiotic mixtures - when the pharmacist adds water to powdered antibiotic it changes the stability of the product and the pharmacist will give it an expiry date of 1 or 2 weeks, depending on the product.
  
• Eye drops - are usually given an expiry date of a month from the dispensing date. This is because your eye is particularly sensitive to any infection that might get into the bottle of eye drops.