Every year I go to the doctor to get my meds. I only see him once a year unless something else comes up.
So yesterday I got some Provental (asthma inhaler) and Ziac (high blood pressure) (the generics of them). The doctor puts a couple of refills on it, then if I need more I call and he gives them to the pharmacy over the phone. The after a year, he says “come in.”
I also have Ménière’s disease (a balance problem) which is pretty much under control without meds. But he’ll give me a couple of Valium to treat it if it flairs up. So he usually gives me a presciption for like 5 valiums and 2 refills.
So I went in with my drugs and noticed that on the Provental and Ziac it says 2 refills expires 1/28/10. But the Valium says 2 refills expires 7/28.
I still have the bottle and last year the same Valium presciption the refills expired in a year.
Why the change? I realize Valium is more of a controlled substance than Provental, but does anyone know why it changed. Why should the refills expire sooner? What difference could it make, cause the amount of drugs is the same.
All it’s gonna make me do is buy the drugs whether I need it or not, just in case I need a refill.
Or is that the idea to get me to buy the drug.
(Note: With the Valium sometimes I only use one or two pills a WHOLE YEAR if the Ménière’s doesn’t flair up at all.)
My WAG is that it may go from the expiration of the druggist’s stock. The stock bottle you got your pills from a year ago, had a year left before expiration. So your prescription bottle reflected a year’s time. This year, the current stock bottle doesn’t have as much time left before it expires.
Count this as my un-educated bump, as I’m curious too.
Per the Controlled Substances Act (and likely your state law as well), refills on any controlled substances are good only for up to 6 months from the date written on the prescription.
From Title 21, Section 829:
**(b) Schedule III and IV substances
Except when dispensed directly by a practitioner, other than a pharmacist, to an ultimate user, no controlled substance in schedule III or IV, which is a prescription drug as determined under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.), may be dispensed without a written or oral prescription in conformity with section 503(b) of that Act (21 U.S.C. 353(b)). Such prescriptions may not be filled or refilled more than six months after the date thereof or be refilled more than five times after the date of the prescription unless renewed by the practitioner. **
The OP is referring to the date of expiration of the prescription, rather than the drug. Regular prescriptions are good for 12 months (usually); as jayrx notes, Schedule III prescriptions are only good for 6.
As has already been mentioned, regular, non controlled prescriptions expire 12 months from the date they are written. Controlled drugs scripts expire 6 months from when they are written.
Diazepam is a schedule IV drug in the U.S. as such, it will expire in 6 months.
Now, that is for the actual script. The actual medication will normally have a one year expiration date when we fill it, unless the date on the actual stock bottle is sooner.
I believe the logic is that the further you go from the original prescription date, the less likely the medication is to be used for the purpose prescribed: either it will be resold, or handed out at a party, or you’ll self-medicate for some other problem, which is bad.
