Storing and using your medicine safely

Storage, and why it is not fussiness

Injectable weight management medicines are biological products, and heat, freezing and light all degrade them. A pen that has been stored wrongly may look completely normal and no longer be what it should be — which is the difficulty: you cannot see the problem, so the rule has to be followed rather than judged.

Three rules are common to all of them.

Keep it refrigerated before first use. Between 2°C and 8°C, in the fridge, not in the freezer compartment and not against the back wall where things freeze. Keep it in its original carton, which also protects it from light.

Never use it if it has been frozen. Not if it looks fine afterwards, not if it was only brief. A frozen pen is finished. Tell us and do not use it.

Do not use it past the expiry date printed on the pen and the carton.

The bit that differs between products

After first use, most of these pens may be kept out of the fridge, below a stated temperature, for a stated number of days — and both numbers differ between products. So does whether a pen goes back in the fridge afterwards, and how long it may be kept once it has been out.

This page deliberately does not give you a number. The limits for your pen are in the patient information leaflet supplied with it, and on the electronic medicines compendium. Read the leaflet for the product you actually have, not the one you had before.

If a pen has been left out longer than its leaflet allows, or somewhere hot, do not use it. Contact us.

Delivery, and what to do when it arrives

Medicines that need refrigeration are sent in temperature-appropriate packaging and tracked, and outer packaging carries no clinic branding and no description of the contents. Put a delivery in the fridge as soon as you can after it arrives.

If a parcel arrives obviously damaged, if it has clearly been left somewhere hot, or if it has been sitting far longer than the tracking suggested it would, tell us before you use it rather than after.

Keep it out of reach

Out of the sight and reach of children, like every medicine. A pen is not a household object and a needle is not a toy.

Never share a pen with anyone else, even with a new needle each time. Pens are single-patient devices and sharing one can pass on a blood-borne infection.

Using an injection pen

The instructions that count are the ones in the leaflet for your pen; the notes below are the general practice that applies across them.

• Wash your hands, and check the medicine’s appearance if the leaflet asks you to.
• Use a new needle every time. Reusing one blunts it, hurts more, and risks blockage and infection.
• Inject under the skin — the abdomen, the front of the thigh, or the back of the upper arm are the usual sites. Avoid within a few centimetres of the navel, and avoid skin that is bruised, broken, tender, scarred or hardened.
• Rotate the site each time. Injecting into the same spot repeatedly causes lumps under the skin which change how the medicine is absorbed.
• Same day each week for a weekly medicine, at a time that suits your routine.
• Take the needle off after use and dispose of it in a sharps bin straight away, not later.

A weekly medicine can usually be injected regardless of meals, and can be given with other injectables provided they are not mixed and not given in exactly the same spot — but check your own leaflet, and ask if you are taking insulin.

If you are unsure of the technique, ask. It is a reasonable thing to ask about and it is better asked before the first dose.

Needles and sharps disposal

Used needles never go in household waste, recycling or a bin bag. They go in a sharps bin: a rigid, lidded, purpose-made container.

Getting one and getting rid of a full one varies by area. Ask us, ask your GP practice, or ask a local pharmacy; your council’s website will say what it collects and whether there is a drop-off point. Arrangements genuinely differ between councils, so check rather than assume.

Do not fill a bin past the marked line, and keep it out of reach of children.

Travelling with your medicine

• Keep it in your hand luggage on a flight. Hold luggage can freeze, and it can also go missing.
• Take the medicine in its original labelled carton, so what it is and who it was prescribed for is clear.
• Take a cool bag or a medical travel wallet for the journey, and check your leaflet for how long the pen may be out of the fridge.
• Ask us before you travel if you need a letter confirming what you have been prescribed, and check the rules of the country you are going to — some require documentation for prescribed medicines.
• Plan the timing if you are crossing time zones, rather than improvising it at the airport.

If a supply is going to run out while you are away, tell us before you go rather than when you get back. Reordering and reviews explains why a gap matters and what it means for the strength you come back to.