DEAR DR. GOTT: Is it OK to take amoxicillin that has expired?

DEAR READER: This is not an uncommon question to ask. In fact, I wrote about this very subject a year ago and mentioned a study by our military services who were faced with the question of disposing of a huge stockpile of outdated drugs sixteen years prior at enormous expense and replacing them with new medication, or whether the drugs were still safe and effective beyond the expiration dates posted. Oddly enough, the military found that more than 90% of the drugs tested were perfectly good to use as many as 15 years FOLLOWING the presumed termination dates. A report covering the topic appeared in the Wall Street Journal in March 2000. In 2003, three years following, the FDA indicated they hadn’t yet garnered sufficient evidence from the program to make a determination — despite the fact that most of what is known regarding drug expiration dates has come from the study conducted by the FDA at the request of the military. Go figure!
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