Management of short expiry drugs

The short expiry drugs are the drugs which are left with a short shelf-life and need to be utilised immediately to avoid their expiry. 

Shelf-life of a drug is defined as a period during which the drug will last without deterioration, provided all precautions for good storage practices have been undertaken. The shelf-life of anti-TB drugs ranges from 3-5 years after which the chances of losing efficacy and probability of side effects increase rapidly. Therefore, it is important to ensure that appropriate steps are taken as soon as the drugs reach the critical stage to ensure their usage well within their shelf-life.

Identification of Short Expiry Drugs 

• Short expiry depends on two main factors, duration of the treatment and the time taken for transit from one level to the next lower level, i.e., from State Drug Stores (SDS) to the District TB Centre (DTC) --->Tuberculosis Unit (TU) ---> Peripheral Health Institute (PHI).
• Whenever the drugs are dispatched,  the transit duration (approx.3 months), possible treatment interruption (approx. 1 month), a probable extension of the Intensive Phase (1 month) and the buffer stocking norm under each facility should be taken into account, to calculate if the drug is expiring shortly.

Principles of Management of Short Expiry Drugs 

• For the drugs whose expiry date is mentioned only as month and year, the last day of that particular month should be considered as the date of expiry.
• Expiry-wise stacking of the drugs, marking of expiry dates on cartons/ drug boxes with marker pens and periodic monitoring of the expiry position of the drugs.
• The expiry date should be highlighted in yellow to flag attention to the drugs facing the risk of expiry.
• First-Expiry-First-Out (FEFO) principle should be strictly followed in the case of short-expiry drugs which means the drugs near to expiry should be issued first.
• All the details about the drug quantity and expiry date should be recorded and reported in Ni-kshay Aushadhi.
• A review of drug adequacy should be conducted monthly/quarterly by the officer in charge to identify any stock imbalances or excessive short expiry drugs and implement corrective measures accordingly.
• The distribution of short expiry drugs on a rational basis, keeping in view the utilisation pattern of each district to ensure timely consumption of close to expiry drugs.

Resources

• Standard Operating Procedure Manual Procurement & Supply Chain Management, CTD, MoHFW, India, 2018.
• Procurement, Supply Chain Management & Preventive Maintenance, Module 6, CTD, MoHFW, India.

Assessment