Proper storage of your medication is essential for maintaining its effectiveness, especially in warm and humid climates like Queensland. Whether it’s a compounded formula tailored for you or a standard prescription from your local pharmacy, knowing how to store it safely ensures your treatment works as intended. So, how do you store compounded medication safely? In this fact sheet, we’ll explain how temperature, humidity, and sun exposure can affect your medicines, and share practical advice to help you store them correctly.
Table of contents:
Your medicine’s label isn’t just there for your name and dosage instructions. It also includes important storage information. In Australia, dispensary labels often list conditions such as:
Look out for fridge stickers and specific temperature advice. If in doubt, ask your pharmacist to explain the label clearly.
Heat isn’t the only concern. Queensland’s humidity—especially during summer—can degrade medicines faster than many realise. Even if a room feels cool in the morning or evening, sunlight during the day can warm surfaces and increase humidity. Leaving medicine on the kitchen bench, for example, may expose it to temperature fluctuations and moisture.
To protect your medicines from heat, sunlight, and moisture:
Choose a cool, dry place such as a pantry, bedroom cupboard, or hallway closet.
Avoid bathrooms and kitchens if they’re exposed to steam or direct sunlight.
Never leave medicine near windows, in cars, or on benchtops that get sun during the day.
If you have children at home, medicine safety includes preventing accidental access:
Store all medicines out of reach and out of sight of children.
Use child-resistant caps, which are standard for most compounded and commercial products.
Never refer to medicine as “lollies” or anything tempting to little ones.
While compounded medicines often come in child-safe packaging, such as press-down-and-turn caps, it’s still essential to choose a secure storage spot at home.
If you’re unsure whether your medicine has been exposed to excessive heat or humidity (or if it looks, smells, or tastes different) don’t take risks. Give your pharmacy a call. At our compounding pharmacy, we keep detailed records of every custom-made medication and can advise you on whether it’s still safe and effective to use.
We’re here to support you with advice tailored to your specific medication and situation.
Correct storage of your medicines helps protect their potency and safety. In Queensland’s heat and humidity, extra care is essential—especially for compounded medications or those made for children. Check the label, store medicines in a cool, dry place, and always keep them out of children’s reach. If in doubt, contact your compounding pharmacist for expert advice.
This article was written by Matt Bellgrove, Managing Director & Compounding Pharmacist
This is a really important thing that I think, from time to time, especially in Queensland, we might skip over.
One of the things, the first thing that I’d always suggest with your medicine, be it compounded medicine made for you or medicine that you’ve received from your local pharmacist: first thing I do, read the label.
The good thing about most medications in Australia is that when they’re labelled, there’s very clear instructions on the dispensary label about the conditions that they should be stored in.
Things like tablets and capsules are generally kept under 25 degrees.
Things like liquids and suspensions for kids, antibiotics, that type of thing, you want to keep them in the fridge. And generally there’ll be a fridge sticker on these types of products just to make it really clear.
But one of the things that we do find when talking to patients in Queensland is that humidity is one of those things that isn’t often considered. And especially summertime, living on the Gold Coast, I know that if I leave something on the kitchen bench during the day, I might not think about it as hot in the morning or hot at night, but if it sees sunlight, it could have really heated up during the day.
So what we recommend is just keep your medicine in a cool, dry place. This could be a cupboard, medication cupboard, or it could be in your bathroom as well, so that you know that it’s nice and stable and it’s also out of sun and humidity.
One of the really important things, if you’ve got kids, is just to think about the location of where you store your medicine in regards to where the kids are. Kids play. Kids explore. Obviously toddlers, young kids just want to go looking for adventures, so be really mindful of that.
Compounded medication is always supplied in packaging that’s generally safe from kids. So this might be a lid like you experience on your Nurofen or your Panadol bottles, where it’s hard to press down unless you’re an adult. And also the capsule bottles can be the same way.
But just to make sure, just take steps at home to make sure that it’s out of reach of kids, out of reach of humidity, out of reach of the sun. And always just keep an eye on the label because the label will give you the expiry date, it’ll give you storage conditions.
And if you’re ever unsure on whether your medicine is damaged or not, pick up the phone, give us a call, and we’re happy to chat to you about the stability of the compounded medicine which we’ve personally made for you, because that’ll really give you reassurance. And we’ve got the information on hand to make sure that what you’re taking is doing the job that it should.
Reach out if you’ve got any questions. We’ll speak to you soon.