Handling and measurement
Beyond-Use Date
Last updated
The date after which a vial should no longer be used, counted from when it was prepared or first pierced rather than from when it was manufactured. It is a different clock from the expiry date printed on the box. On this site it is derived from two inputs, which liquid was added and how the vial is stored, rather than typed in by hand. Bacteriostatic water plus storage at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius is what produces the familiar 28 day window from first puncture.
Why it matters here
The moment a stopper is pierced the printed expiry stops being the governing date and this shorter one takes over. Because the clock starts at an event that nothing records automatically, the date of first puncture is worth writing on the vial itself, since afterwards there is no way to recover it by looking.
What it is not
A beyond-use date is not the expiry date. The printed expiry describes the sealed vial as manufactured and can be years away; the beyond-use date describes the vial you have opened and is usually weeks. A vial comfortably inside its printed expiry can be long past its beyond-use date, and the shorter of the two always governs.
Also called
- beyond-use date
- beyond use date
- bud
- in-use date
- discard date
- in-use shelf life
- expiry after opening
- 28 day
BUD is the abbreviation used in pharmacy. In-use date, discard date and in-use shelf life all name the same clock, and the phrase after first puncture is attached to make clear which event starts it.
Compounds carrying this term
None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.