High heat can damage mail-order medicine [Video]

Many pharmacies, including CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Amazon, allow customers to have prescriptions mailed directly to their homes, instead of having to go into a store to pick them up. 

A VERIFY reader reached out to ask if their medicine is still usable if their prescription package gets held up at a mailing office or is left on their doorstep in the summer heat.

THE QUESTION

Can heat damage mail-order prescriptions? 

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

Yes, heat can damage mail-order prescriptions.

WHAT WE FOUND

Medications left in high temperatures for extended periods of time can lose effectiveness, medical experts say. 

This is because heat can potentially change the chemical makeup of drugs, according to Baystate Health.

“Elevated temperatures can cause the molecular structures within these drugs …