yes
As an addendum to that quick review mentioned by Doc, here's a couple of papers doing analysis.
External Link/Members Onlysays...
Most of drug expiration dates information is from the study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years. What they found from the study is 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date. Hence, the expiration date doesn't really indicate a point at which the medication is no longer effective or has become unsafe to use.
... Expired drugs have not necessarily lost their potency and efficacy. The expiration date is only an assurance that the labeled potency will last at least until that date. Ongoing research shows that stored under optimal conditions, many drugs retain 90% of their potency for at least five years after the labeled expiration date, and sometimes longer. Even 10 years after the expiration date many pharmaceuticals retain a significant amount of their original potency.
External Link/Members Only:
Eight long-expired medications with 15 different active ingredients were discovered in a retail pharmacy in their original, unopened containers. All had expired 28 to 40 years prior to analysis.
... Twelve of the 14 drug compounds tested (86%) were present in concentrations at least 90% of the labeled amounts, the generally recognized minimum acceptable potency. Three of these compounds were present at greater than 110% of the labeled content. Two compounds (aspirin and amphetamine) were present in amounts of less than 90% of labeled content. One compound (phenacetin) was present at greater than 90% of labeled amounts from 1 medication tested, but less than 90% in another medication that contained that drug. (there's a table attached though sildenafil wasn't specifically tested)
External Link/Members OnlyThis one's paywalled but similar conclusions.
There are no published reports of human toxicity due to ingestion, injection, or topical application of a current drug formulation after its expiration date.
...When no suitable alternative is available, outdated drugs may be effective. How much potency they retain varies with the drug, the lot, the preservatives (if any), and the storage conditions, especially heat and humidity; many solid dosage formulations stored under reasonable conditions in their original unopened containers retain 90% of their potency for at least 5 years after the expiration date on the label, and sometimes much longer. Solutions and suspensions are generally less stable.
As Doc says, when the new stuff is cheap, might as well have that. Some people might find tadalafil more price-prohibitive. I've used some that were I think more than ten years old and were effective, though how effective they are compared to how they were originally is hard to judge.
Noting Ali's comment that "After a few years when you pick it up the box goes limp," they weren't in the original
box, but they were still in the original bubble-pack/blister-pack whatever it's called.
[edited as preview function not working properly it seemed]
