Researchers have announced that medicines may have longer expiration date in space following an experiment that saw several drugs stored in the  International Space Station (ISS) for 550 days.

These medications include pain relievers, sleeping aids, antihistamines, an antidiarrheal drugs and an alertness drug. No signs of accelerated degradation were seen on the medicines scientists tested.

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It is a fact that all drugs degrade over time on Earth and it would take a mix of environmental factors to speed up its degradation. Among these factors are humidity, air, and Sun or any light exposure.

Baylor College of Medicine in Texas is where the Center for Space Medicine and Department of Pharmacology is located. Scientists there were eager to know if the medicines stored on ISS would have adverse effects due to higher levels of radiation or microgravity. And they were amazed to find out that it did not have any effects.

A majority of the drugs had past their expiry dates and were sent back to Earth after replacement of fresh pills. Upon arrival on Earth, the medicines were stored under controlled conditions until they were analyzed three to five months later. Four of the nine drugs that were tested at Baylor met the United States Pharmacopeia standards on variability nine months after their expiration date.

Their findings were published this week in The AAPS Journal.

Warning on data usage is given to those who make inferences about other drugs. The scientists admit that more research is necessary to produce safe medicines for astronauts on longer trips further into space like the much-awaited Mars mission.

The researchers admitted that only a handful of medicines were tested. Measurements of the safety and effectiveness of other medicines has still not been determined. The scientists have vowed to conduct rigorous stability studies.

Tagsmedicines, do medicines expire, Space, medicine expiration date space, International Space Station, Scientists, pharmaceutics