Space Medicine: Drugs Do Not Degrade Faster In Space

While drugs degrade over time, exposure to certain things can accelerate that decline. This was done to derive evidence on how medicines might react to factors that are unique to spaceflight, such as microgravity and constant exposure to elevated radiation levels.

USP guidelines provide clear requirements of the quantity of active ingredients and limits of degradation products in a drug which helps scientists determine whether the drug works successfully after being stocked in the space station.

Current procedures ensure that medications aboard the worldwide Space Station (ISS) are restocked before their expiration dates, but resupply may not be possible on future long-duration exploration missions.

The degradation of medicines in space isn’t faster than what is seen on Earth usually.

Medicines on the Earth start degrading after a certain amount of time but this process may get faster when exposed to light or heat, humidity and oxygen.

A report on upi.com, says that scientists evaluated a number of medications, including sleeping aids, pain relievers, antihistamines, an anti-diarrheal medicine, and an alertness drug, and the medicines showed no accelerated degradation due to being in space.

Researchers published their findings this week in The AAPS Journal. Upon arrival on Earth, the medicines were stored under controlled conditions until they were analyzed three to five months later.

The results are based only on measurements made at a single point in time, for a handful of medications. Using 2012 United States Pharmacopeia guidelines, they then determined whether the drugs sent aboard the ISS were still in good condition after all that time in space. Four of the medicines were still usable up to eight months after expiration and three medications conformed to the USP guidelines after being tested three months following the expiration date. One of the medications actually met USP requirements five months after its expiration date. The tests, in addition, did not reveal any peculiar degradation products. Three drugs met USP standards three months before their expiry, according to a press release. “A dietary supplement/sleeping aid did not meet USP requirements eleven months after it had expired”.

They explain, “The findings can not, therefore, be applied to gauge the safety and effectiveness of other medicines, or extrapolated to other storage times”. They are going to help in long term mission planning like the mission to Mars. Upcoming studies will be launched, using the right ground control and different time points, covering other types of medicine, and for a longer period of time.