Does Ibuprofen truly expire?

Take 5

Take the whole bottle and call us in the morning.

I have always heard they just get less potent as time goes on, but never truly "expire". Not sure if that is the same with all drugs though.

took 3, wish me well.

If pills smell different or are crumbling then they are "expired".

Efficacy may be an issue.

I'd still buy some new ones, but if I had a headache and they look and smell fine I take a couple.

Should be fine.

kind of like bottled water having an expiration date

quote:

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but ibuprofen is prone to photochemical oxidation

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so would they have to be exposed to UV light, or would keeping them in a bottle work?

Ibuprofen has been used as sort of a model drug to determine forced degradation in a laboratory setting to establish protocols for determining the stability of other drugs. Certainly light would speed the process of the oxidative cleavage of the carboxylic acid, but ibuprofen has produced degradation products under thermal stress, as well.