My son consulted a general practitioner recently and was prescribed a liquid medication that was poured into a simple, small plastic bottle, which was labelled with basic details such as patient’s name, instructions for use and the date of prescription.

Although this is an ingrained practice in Singapore, I wonder if this should still be considered acceptable today.

Drug manufacturers are subject to strict regulation, including the requirement that stability studies be performed to ensure that container closure systems are suitable, that product batch numbers be properly labelled, and that the expiry date of the medicines at a specific storage temperature be given.

But these medicines are then simply poured for users into containers which do not have proven compatibility with the product, and which have not been studied for product stability over time.

In addition, the bottles patients receive are not labelled with the date to indicate when they were poured from the original container, batch number of the product or the actual expiry date.

I also wonder if there should be a note to instruct the patient to discard the medication within a specific period and not to keep it for future use, since long-term storage is not supported by stability studies.

This is especially important for older folk, who often feel that it is a waste to throw half a bottle of medicine away.

The Ministry of Health should look into this matter to ensure that safety, quality and efficacy are not compromised.

Iris Koh