Establishing a Drug Stability Budget During Storage and Transit

In previous blog posts, we have explored the fact that many drugs, vaccines and pharmaceutical products require refrigerated conditions in order to maintain efficacy. We also examined the importance of minimizing temperature excursions during transportation. Establishing a drug stability budget can minimize discards and ensure a quality product is delivered to the end-user.

We know that maintenance of correct storage temperature is important, but how do we go about quantifying and managing the stability of the drugs during transport. If we are able to do this, rather than arbitrarily disposing of drugs exposed to temperature excursions, you can minimize wastage through discarded drugs. So exactly how long can a pharmaceutical product be exposed to temperature excursion before its efficacy is compromised? The short answer is, it will depend on the pharmaceutical product and its chemical makeup. The amount of time the pharmaceutical product can spend outside of desired storage conditions is known as the Drug Stability Budget.