Classes Sue Drug Giants Over Expiration Dates

[douglas9]

CLAYTON, Mo. (CN) - Pfizer, Bayer, and Johnson & Johnson warn customers to throw away medicines by an expiration date, though the drug giants know the products are good long after the dates, three class actions claim in state court.
The class actions in St. Louis County Circuit Court were filed against Bayer Healthcare, which makes Bayer aspirin; Pfizer, which makes Advil; and Johnson & Johnson and McNeil-PPC, which make Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom solid medications.
The classes accuse the drug giants of using "unconscionable, unfair, deceptive, unethical and illegal" methods to get consumers to throw away their products when expiration date has passed, though the companies know "that if stored properly these medications can and do remain chemically stable, safe and effective long after those dates."
The classes claim that studies by Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins University proved that these products are safe and effective long after the expiration date. But the defendants continue putting the expiration dates on their products.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/10/24/51608.htm

[Stargazer09]

1. Some of the medications

Expire less than a year after they appear on the store shelves. You can't tell me that those pills are THAT fragile.

[HiPointDem]

2. kr. one of the reasons for high health care costs, as it's not only consumers who are told to throw

out expired meds.

[SoCalDem]

3. and those drugs end up in our soil & water

[HiPointDem]

4. yes (though one way or another, they will end up in the soil or water -- but for sure, promoting

overproduction through phoney expiration dates = more winding up there)