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Havana patient reports buying a salbutamol inhaler that expires in January

A Havana patient posted that she bought a salbutamol spray with an expiry date of January 2027 after going a year and two months without finding it at her pharmacy, according to a complaint circulated by CiberCuba and reported by Infobae.

'Today, in November 2026, they are selling a medicine that expires in two months, in January 2027,' Havana resident Juliette Fernández Estrada wrote on Facebook after buying a salbutamol inhaler to treat her asthma, according to the complaint circulated by CiberCuba and reported by Infobae.

The post included photographs of the box, made by Laboratorios MedSol, based in Boyeros, Havana: the package belongs to batch 675025 and lists January 2027 as its expiry date. Fernández Estrada said she had gone a year and two months without obtaining the inhaler because of the persistent shortage at her neighborhood pharmacy.

'The unbearable Cuban state, after failing in its duty for so long, sells medicines that are about to expire or have plainly expired,' the patient wrote. The case follows another complaint recorded in September in Bayamo, Granma province, where a state pharmacy was offering paracetamol and azithromycin with an expiry date of September 30; the post about that episode was published on September 11, when the products had less than three weeks of shelf life left, the same outlet reported.

CiberCuba linked both episodes to inventory management: some products are said to have stayed in state reserves while pharmacies reported shortages, and then to have reached the counters close to their expiry date. Yamacoa has not been able to independently verify either complaint.

Sources: Infobae

Data updated: 2026-11-09T16:15:00.000Z

Havana patient reports buying a salbutamol inhaler that expires in January | Yamacoa Observatory