B12 packaging expiry date?

[Taff178]

Hydro B12 packaging date May 2020 is that end or beginning of month? Do I need to bin or can I still use?

[helvella]

It is always the end of the month.

[Taff178 in reply to helvella]

Thank you

[clivealive Forum Support]

Personally I wouldn't worry overmuch Taff178 as I doubt it will go into "self-destruct" mode on 1st June

[Taff178 in reply to clivealive]

😂 thank you

[fbirder]

I would quite happily take stuff that 'expired' on May 31st in July or August.

[Miss-guineapig in reply to fbirder]

Definately xx, no problem

[Taff178]

Thank you

[wedgewood]

It says on the leaflet in the Rotexmedica pack that it’s till the end of the month .

[Taff178]

Thank you

[Scothyroidy]

Seems very unlikely to be any different a month or 2 or 3 or 4 etc past its use by date.

[Miss-guineapig in reply to Scothyroidy]

Wise words, just use up x

[Bmam125]

As everyone said, it is the end of the month. I agree I wouldn’t mind using it if it is slightly over the date but, if you go to a surgery for them to administer like I did(in normal times), mine do check dates & will 100% refuse if out of date, even by a day. I went on the last few days of a month once with my ampoule in my bag. She said lucky it’s not after Monday as she wouldn’t be able to use it. She’d have sent me away to ask for new prescription, wait 48 hours then make another appointment.

No problem if self injecting though

[Midnight_Voice]

When I worked at L’Oreal (in Llantrisant, jocularly known as the reverse Polo, the hole with the Mint) there was a factor in the recipes for potency, the falling off in time of the strength and effectiveness of the ingredients.

It was a very slow fall, but it was there.

So your date-expired ampoules may be down to 90% potency, say, and dropping slowly if you leave them any longer, but they aren’t going to drop to zero all of a sudden, or turn into anything bad, ever.

[helvella in reply to Midnight_Voice]

Some pharmaceutical companies have used "overage" as a standard approach. (Nothing to do with being 18 or 65, I hasten to add.) That is, put slightly more of the active ingredient in so that when the product is received by the patient it will have closer to the claimed potency.

This was certainly done with levothyroxine in the USA for many years. And resulted in worse issues as sometimes the products were over-potent. And there was inherently a difference between two companies - one of which used overage, the other didn't. That made changing makes more difficult than it should have been.

Overage was banned in the USA (at least for levothyroxine) over fifteen years ago.

I'd like to think that it had been banned across the board, everywhere. It is, after all, a fudge factor. If appropriate to start with more active ingredient, say that on the label. E.g. put 1100 micrograms of B12 in an ampoule and say so. (Of course, B12 dosage seems uncritical provided there is enough. Whereas for levothyroxine even tiny variations, up or down, can be important.)

[fbirder in reply to helvella]

I've never heard of the idea of a baker's dozen being used with ingredients. I'm pretty sure Good Manufacturing Practice regulations specify that the amount of accurate ingredient must be +/- a certain percentage within the quoted value.

[helvella in reply to fbirder]

This was well-documented.

PRODUCT   % of LABELED CLAIM

Flint (Synthroid™)  106% – 109%

USV  101%

Geneva – Zenith  93% – 108%

Rugby  107%

Page/slide 6 here:

fda.gov/media/77811/download

It should never have been done, never been allowed, never needed to be banned.

But, as you can see, Synthroid was well over. Hardly a surprise that if someone on a stable dose of Synthroid was switched to another make, they would often have experienced an effective dose reduction, albeit small in absolute terms. And tiny dose changes are important for thyroid hormones.

There are those who consider Synthroid to have exploited this to persuade patients and doctors that other makes were inferior.

The document does read rather as a "we the FDA are fantastic and all is well in the world". Ignoring that they allowed the situation for many, many years. Despite many issues. They also appear to completely miss that levothyroxine is hardly soluble in water or acidic solutions.

[fbirder in reply to helvella]

Ah! Was that just an American thing? I'm pretty sure that the EU has a much tighter control than do the US authorities.

[helvella in reply to fbirder]

No - overages are still part of things. But I think that the word "target" is important. If the target is 100%, that is OK. Whereas the USA seemed happy to allow significantly over in order to achieve longer life/better end of life potency.

First easy to access EU document I found:

ema.europa.eu/en/documents/...

[Miss-guineapig in reply to Midnight_Voice]

I think people are ultra cautious. Manufacturing is so precise and efficient, goods could technically last for years. Gradual reduced efficacy but more than enough for benefits I believe xx

[helvella in reply to Miss-guineapig]

It also depends on storage. The expiry date is based on pretty average storage conditions. If you have been able to achieve optimum conditions (whatever they are), and particularly to avoid poor conditions, that efficacy could be only very slightly reduced.

[Miss-guineapig in reply to helvella]

That so true Helvella, thank you x

[Taff178 in reply to helvella]

Thank you

[Taff178]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply very kind if you. I store the vials in a dark cool place, will use them over the next month