National Medical Product Stability Day is February 19th

Each pharmaceutical, biological, medical device, vaccine, and cell therapy company employs or contracts scientists who subject the product to a range of temperature, humidity, and light over a period of time, test the product periodically for degradation, and employ statistics to the trend results in order to project its shelf life. These experiments also inform how medical personnel, and the patient can safely store the product.

While every user sees the expiration date and recommended storage conditions on the package, few realize how much knowledge and work went into the determination of this information and that a specialized group of scientists known as Stabilitarians play a key part in producing it.

The goal of the day is to recognize the process, as well as the scientists who work with a small army of stakeholders to conduct the experiments to determine the stability of medical products, which results in the prescribed storage conditions and safety of the patient.

The date chosen for this recognition coincides with the birthday of Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927), a Swedish scientist who perfected the equation in which shelf life could be calculated and is still in worldwide use today for many categories of medical products.

Take a moment this Friday to celebrate and acknowledge the work of Stabilitarians in your organization and congratulate them on their special day.