Summary: You have a splitting headache, but the only medicine you have expired six months ago. Should you take it or toss it out? The jury’s still out, but a recent ProPublica investigation found that most medicines still work beyond their marked expiration dates, though it stopped short of recommending that consumers go ahead and take expired drugs. A few drugs they tested did actually expire, but most expired 5.5 years past the listed date—some even worked up to 20 years after the date.
