briang@panix.com wrote:
I have several boxes of Humalog KwicPens that are past their expiration
date. How significant is that? Are they still useful after 3 months
or whatever?
Insulin and insulin analogs decay steadily from the time of their
manufacture to when they're used or discarded. The main thing affecting
how fast they decay is temperature. Every 3 or 4 degrees Centigrade
warmer they are stored doubles the rate of decay. However they don't
decay into anything poisonous.
Humalog by its nature decays faster, perhaps by a factor of 50 or 100,
than standard insulin.
So the main question I would ask is has this Humalog been stored in a
fridge? If so, I would use it (it's expensive stuff just to throw away),
but with care. If you do blood glucose tests, and notice higher values
than you expect or want, increase the Humalog dose by, perhaps, 10% to compensate for the drug's decay.
Just as a matter of interest, I once tried using ~10 year old Actrapid
which had been stored at room temperature, having calculated (by formulae
I've since lost) the degree of decay, and compensated for it. My
diabetes control was OK, but I didn't feel at my best during the few days
I tried it. That may have been coincidence.
It's a complicated subject. But in your position, I would use these
Pens, which are only marginally past their expiration dates, but with
care.
--
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).
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