Q. How safe are mail order drugs after sitting in a metal mailbox during summer heat or winter cold? I take lisinopril for high blood pressure and pravastatin to lower cholesterol.
A. You have asked a question that is uncomfortable for many mail order pharmacies. That’s because they have no way to protect medicines from temperature extremes during shipment.
Lisinopril is supposed to be stored “at controlled room temperature (68-77 degrees F)” and protected “from moisture, freezing and excessive heat.” Pravastatin comes with instructions to “store at 77 degrees F; excursions permitted to 59-86 degrees F.”
During the cold snaps this winter, many medications were doubtless frozen in unheated delivery vehicles and while sitting in mailboxes.
Liquid medicine is especially vulnerable to freezing or high heat. One reader wrote that a delivery of insulin was left on a porch for hours. She checked with the mail order pharmacy, which told her that the drug was probably fine. Despite the reassurance, she could not get her blood sugar under control for two months. She became lethargic and confused until the doctor gave her an injection of insulin in the office. Her medication seems to have been affected by the exposure.
