How Long Is Minoxidil Effective?

Minoxidil, or Rogaine, the topical medication to promote hair growth has not been retested for potency after the expiration date.  It is said that medications should be used before their expiration date, and discarded after the date on the medication.  However, studies have shown many drugs to contain their potency after dates listed.

Approximately fifteen year ago, the U.S. military first began retesting many drugs after their expiration dates to find out if they still worked.  The reason the testing began was in an attempt to stop wasting billions of dollars in drugs annually because expiration dates were in the past.  The military wanted to know the accuracy of these dates, in addition to where the dates even came from. 

It turned out the military saved hundreds of millions of dollars by discovering that ninety percent of the drugs were safe and effective far past their expiration dates.  Manufacturers still continue to put early expiration dates on medications for several reasons.  Manufacturers claim that packaging and inserts are updated frequently and can be outdated if the date on the actual medication is too far away.  They also maintain that many people keep their medications in bathrooms, which is a very humid environment that can cause medications to expire more rapidly.  Others theorize that the reason for this early expiration dates is for marketing purposes.  It is not the most profitable tactic to have medications sit on shelves for years and years.  Therefore, they create a turnover tactic by placing early expiration dates on bottles.  Whether this is true or not, we can only speculate. 

In regards to Minoxidil, like many other medications, it is said that it should not be used past its expiration date.  However, there is no way for us to be sure that it is not effective post-date.  We can only be certain that it is not likely to cause harm to use the drug after the expiration date; it just may not help the condition.