Sterilization with gamma irradiation has been established as an acceptable method highly advantageous compared to other methods for the sterilization of several products, including pharmaceutical preparations. However, the effects of irradiated drugs on the consumer when they are introduced in the human body are still unknown. Thus, consumers should be aware if a drug has been irradiated and freely choose whether to consume it or not. Consequently, development of drug irradiation detection methods, useful for regulatory compliance purposes, is an active area of investigation.To this respect, new OSL measurements on five commercial solid drugs (Daktarin®, Aspirin®, Panadol®, Brufen® and Procef®) for radiation doses up to several kGy were conducted in order to investigate if the OSL method can identify irradiated drugs. Dose response study, computerized curve deconvolution analysis (CCDA), fading test and sterilization dose recovery test with the SARHS protocol were conducted to investigate the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) characteristics of the drugs and the properties of the involved traps.Results indicate that all drugs have a linear dose range up to 1–2 kGy, while the entire dose range can perfectly be fitted with an exponential decay curve. Although the fading rate varies, an appreciable signal remains unaffected even 6 months post irradiation in all drugs. The CCDA revealed that the kinetics are of second order and that all drugs have a very fast component with a lifetime of approximately 0.3–5.6 s. The single aliquot regenerative protocol for the calculation of the equivalent dose in heat-sensitive materials exhibiting sensitization (SARHS), developed in a previous work, was also tested on the solid drugs. The SARHS, which can correct for the sensitization effect without involving any heating, but introducing an optical bleaching procedure between the repeated irradiation/stimulation cycles during the construction of the calibration curve, proved capable of calculating the sterilization dose of irradiated drugs.The new findings are very promising towards the post-sterilization dosimetry of solid drugs, rendering the OSL and the SARHS protocol capable of the detection and the determination of the radiation dose applied in irradiated drugs, after the fading factor has been estimated.