An expired strip of tablets is two problems in one. It is a patient-safety failure if it is sold, and a straight loss if it is not. Pharmacies and drug shops sit at the end of a long supply chain and inherit everyone else's short-dated stock, so expiry control has to be deliberate. This post explains the method the public sector calls first expiry, first out (FEFO), why it matters in Uganda specifically, and how to run it in a small shop.
The scale of the problem
Expiry is not a private-sector quirk. A 2025 study in BMC Health Services Research on Uganda's medicine redistribution guidelines records that in 2016 essential medicines worth US$550,000 expired in the public system. The same study found that only 29.5% of the facilities assessed in Hoima and Kabarole met the compliance threshold for the redistribution guidelines, and that poor transport, delays in authorisation and surplus stock at the receiving facility were the main barriers to moving stock before it expired.
The guidelines the study examined, the Uganda National Redistribution Strategy for the Prevention of Expiry and Management of Expired Medicines and Health Supplies, were launched by the Ministry of Health in 2012 and revised in 2018. Compliance with them is assessed partly on monthly physical stock assessments, which is exactly the discipline a private pharmacy needs too.
On the enforcement side, The Observer reported in November 2025 that during an NDA operation across Kitgum, Gulu, Amolatar, Pader and Kwania, the chief regional inspector of drugs for northern Uganda said some of the seized medicines had already expired yet were still being administered to patients. Expired stock on a shelf is therefore not just a book loss; it is something an inspector looks for.
What FEFO means
First in, first out (FIFO) sells the oldest purchase first. FEFO sells the stock that expires soonest first, which is not always the oldest purchase, because suppliers do not ship in date order. A shop that receives a batch dated March 2027 on Monday and a batch dated November 2026 on Thursday must sell Thursday's batch first. FEFO requires three things: the expiry date recorded per batch at receiving, the shelf arranged so the soonest-expiring batch is picked first, and a regular report of what expires in the next three to six months.
Receiving: the moment that decides everything
Most expiry losses are created at the door. Check every line on delivery against the invoice for product, quantity, batch number and expiry date, and refuse or negotiate anything with a shelf life too short for your rate of sale. Write the batch and expiry into the stock record as the goods are received, not later from the invoice, because the invoice does not always carry the expiry.
A useful house rule is a minimum remaining shelf life at receipt, for example twelve months for slow movers and six months for fast movers. The number is yours to set; the point is that it exists and that the receiving clerk is allowed to say no.
Shelving and picking
Front-load the shelf: newer, longer-dated batches go to the back, soonest-expiring batches to the front. Mark short-dated items with a coloured sticker that the whole team recognises. Where a product has two batches on the shelf, the till should show which batch to pick, and the dispenser should confirm it. Dispensing from the back of the shelf because it is closer to hand is how FEFO fails in practice.
The monthly count and the expiry report
Count physically once a month, item by item, and compare with the stock record. The count catches two things at once: quantity differences, and batches that were never recorded. At the same time run an expiry report for the next three and six months. Items expiring in six months go on a watch list; items expiring in three months get a decision: push through a promotion, return to the supplier if the terms allow, transfer to a branch that sells them faster, or set aside for destruction.
Destruction, properly
Under the general penalty clause of the National Drug Policy and Authority Act (section 60), items in contravention of the Act can be impounded, forfeited, destroyed or disposed of as the Minister prescribes, so expired stock should never simply go in the bin or back on the shelf. Quarantine it in a marked, locked container, keep a destruction register with product, batch, quantity and date, and follow the NDA's procedure for disposal. The quarantine container should be emptied on a schedule, not when it is full.
What to measure
Two numbers tell the owner whether FEFO is working: the value of stock expiring in the next 90 days, and the value written off to expiry each month. Both should trend down after the first quarter of running the system. If they do not, the problem is almost always at receiving.
Sources
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