FREEZING Prescription drugs (Not intentionally)

[Sourdough]

PLEASE don't guess. A guess is worth slightly less than ZERO.

If you are one of those humans who feels compelled to respond but is clueless, please in your response state you have zero idea, but can't control yourself.

It is slightly below zero this morning. This winter 24'-25' it will get -28 to -36 "below" but my prescription drugs are delivered via USPS. If you have professional training, please voice your opinion of potential damage to any class of prescription medication freezing.

Watch this thread as it is nearly assured someone will post that they don't know, but they think (read did not think) freezing prescription medication could harm or degrade them.

 

[DrHenley]

Speaking from personal experience, (and I have a PhD in chemical engineering)...

Way back when you could buy a year's worth of prescription drugs at a time, I found that before the year was out the drugs were turning yellow. So I started keeping them in the freezer. In the freezer they kept indefinitely. I've been doing this for decades.
There are SOME drugs like insulin and other injectable drugs that are in a liquid state that you CANNOT freeze, but drugs that are solid, in my experience, will keep just fine in the deep freeze for a long long time. Solid is the key. In capsules or hard pills either one. But it must be solid.
The reason you can't keep liquid drugs in the freezer is that ice crystals form and when that happens it can cause a separation of ingredients (like in ice distillation).

 

[Sourdough]

Thank you, for the reply.

 

[Binky]

Okay, you don't want responses from clueless people who can't control themselves from saying "I don't know" so I won't do that.

But are you open to uncontrollable suggestions?

Like for example you could be contacting the people who will be packaging the materials for shipping and instruct them that it's urgent for them to be packed in insulating materials, and to label the packaging very conspicuously with warnings that the contents are perishable goods that must be kept above freezing temperatures.

And maybe try contacting USPS and ask if they can offer any assurances that they can arrange for your shipments of perishable medications to be transported in an insulated compartment that is resistant to cold temperature.

That's the first things I'd ask about under the same circumstances.

 

[Dave V]

Exactly as DrHenley said. (This coming from my Phamacist wife!)

 

[Sourdough]

Exactly as DrHenley said. (This coming from my Phamacist wife!)

Please thank her for me.

 

[Pearl]

EVERY DRUG IS DIFFERENT, there is NO one answer! Every drug must be treated independently!

 

[Neb]

EVERY DRUG IS DIFFERENT, there is NO one answer! Every drug must be treated independently!

I defer to @DrHenley .

His response is consistent with my understanding.

Ben

 

[montanabill]

As long as we are on the subject.....my wife the RN has pushed a lot of pills and been involved in recycling drugs for third world countries etc.
We keep the good stuff in the deep freeze and the insulin products in a stable refrigerator with a wireless thermometer that tells the temp inside and relays the temp to the small unit I have right where I look twice a day (the cat food shelf).

 

[forcast]

Why bother typing untill you call the pharmacy and ask them the question?

 

[montanabill]

Why bother typing untill you call the pharmacy and ask them the question?

You mean the same pharmacy that I was at yesterday and tried to give me a free covid 19 shot that has been proven kills people?

Or should I ask the only hospital in our area.....that is one of the top 10 places in the nation to get a post op infection.

 

[DrHenley]

Why bother typing untill you call the pharmacy and ask them the question?

The pharmacy that pushed you to get the "safe and effective" mRNA vaccine and endless boosters?

 

[Tommyice]

@Sourdough I asked the pharmacist I work with today and she said it would change the efficacy. Any temperature excursions will do that.

 

[Sourdough]

Why bother typing untill you call the pharmacy and ask them the question?

I get this response a lot. If I come up with the answer (more likely to be one of many answers) no one else learns from that. By opening it up to the community of HCL we all learn something.

 

[montanabill]

i amend my comment to say we keep all our solid pill form meds in the deep freeze. If you have liquids then you have to treat them with the care they need.
I also always consider having to practice any kind of health care when there is no doctor or health supplies available. So if a med can help even a little bit and nothing else is available I will certainly try it.

Right here and now if they leave something that shouldn't be frozen on my doorstep and it is -38F like it was last year I will scurry down to the local pharmacy and replace it..
When I worked in a food store we had temp trackers on things like bananas that let us know if they had been exposed to cold temps...Much better than receiving and signing for a load of yellow bananas and the next day having them all black.