While research shows that mail-order medications can reduce costs and help patients stick to their prescriptions, some health care providers are increasingly concerned about heat-related degradation during transit.
Mike Ren, an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine and a primary care physician, said The New York Times that exposure to heat can combine with pressure changes in air-filled cans to create a “double whammy” of problems. Inhaled drugs are usually designed to act quickly and are often used in an emergency. Liquid drugs, which are carefully mixed to have precise proportions of ingredients, can become less effective due to evaporation, he said.
As reported by Timessome mail order pharmacists assure customers that their medications are safe to use as long as there are no visible signs of spoilage. But research has found that some medicines can be damaged by heat without showing any outward symptoms. Mail order pharmacies said they have special weatherproof packages and precautions are taken when shipping medications that require certain storage temperatures, Times noted.
The United States Pharmacopeia, which sets standards for drug storage and shipping, recommends that oral medications be stored at a temperature between 68 and 77 degrees (20 to 25 Celsius).
A 2023 study published in Journal of the American Pharmacists Association found that shipped pharmaceutical packages spend more than 68% of their time outside the recommended temperature range. When a heat wave hits the United States in 2022, UPS drivers told The New York Times that the temperatures in their cars reach 150 degrees (66 Celsius).
The United States had a very hot summer this year, with the west coast and Texas under temperatures of more than 100 degrees (38 Celsius) for days or weeks at a time. The east coast was somewhat cooler, but millions of people were still under heat warnings in early July. The heat was part of a global trend that saw world temperature records repeatedly broken. This unrelenting heat underscores growing concerns about the safety and efficacy of mail-order medications, as high temperatures become the new norm.
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