Medicine expiry management: how a pharmacy stops losing money to expired stock

Why stock expires

Almost all expired stock comes from three things: buying more than sells (often to get a scheme), not noticing short-dated stock until it is too late, and missing the company's return deadline. Each one has a fix.

1. Record the batch and expiry on every purchase

Everything else depends on this. When the distributor's invoice arrives, enter the batch number and expiry date for each line - not later, not "when there is time". If you use software, it should not let you save a purchase line for a medicine without them.

2. Sell the earliest expiry first

Put new stock behind old stock on the shelf, and make sure the counter sells the batch that expires first. Software can help here: when it knows the batches, it can pick the earliest-expiring one at the counter and warn if someone picks a later one, or an expired one.

3. Check what expires in the next 90 days - every month

Set a fixed day each month, for example the 1st, and look at everything expiring in the next three months. For each item decide: can it sell in time? If not, it is better to act now than in the last week:

• move it to the front, or to the branch where it sells faster;
• offer it to a regular customer or a nearby doctor who uses it;
• return it to the company while the return window is still open.

4. Know each company's return window

Many companies take back short-dated stock only within a fixed period before (or after) expiry. Write down each company's rule. A "return-due" list - stock whose return window is about to close - is one of the most valuable reports a pharmacy can have, because it turns a loss into a credit note.

5. Buy less of what sells slowly

A scheme on a slow-moving medicine is not a saving if half of it expires. Before you reorder, look at how many units actually sold in the last 30 or 60 days. Software that shows slow-moving items and reorder suggestions based on real sales makes this a two-minute job.

6. Never sell an expired batch

Besides the risk to the patient, it damages the shop's name for years. The simplest protection is software that stops the sale of an expired batch at the counter, so that even a new salesman cannot make the mistake.

A monthly routine that takes 20 minutes

1. Open the expiring-soon list (next 90 days) and the return-due list.
2. Mark what to return, what to move and what to offer.
3. Prepare the returns for each company while the window is open.
4. Look at slow-moving items before placing this month's orders.
5. Check last month's returns came back as credit in the supplier's ledger.

How Alpha helps

In Alpha the batch and expiry are part of every purchase. Alpha shows expiring-soon, expired and return-due lists with per-company return windows, warns before an expired batch is sold, and shows slow-moving items and reorder suggestions grouped by company. See Alpha for pharmacies.