How long is a prescription for medicine valid for?

An ordinary prescription for medicines remains valid for three months – after this your pharmacist no longer has the right to dispense them to you. There are exceptions for certain less commonly-prescribed drugs, such as some narcotics, which may be limited to just three days.

A repeat prescription is often for six months and generally not more than a year, however there are shorter maximum periods for certain drugs such as sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety drugs, of two to 12 weeks.

A prescription for tests or for sessions with ‘medical auxiliaries’ such as nurses and physiotherapists has no specific limit, but blood tests labs generally do not allow people to make use of prescriptions that are more than a year old and furthermore your healthcare caisse may refuse to reimburse tests or care sessions that are done too long after they were prescribed.