Independent analysis puts a SGN orforglipron lot at 96.1%, against 93.2% on the certificate

An independent purity determination on orforglipron material sold by SGN has returned 96.1%, a figure 0.6 percentage points above the number printed on the accompanying certificate, which the supplier had reported against a shorter gradient and a tighter threshold. The analysis was performed by Medutest on a vial the Journal bought as an ordinary retail customer in June 2025 and posted unopened.

Content by elemental nitrogen determination returned 93% of the labelled nominal mass, which on a 2 mg vial corresponds to roughly 4.05 mg of peptide rather than the labelled figure. The remainder is accounted for by counter-ion, residual water and residual solvent, none of which is visible chromatographically.

Reported figures across the set were: highest 96.1%, lowest 93.2%, median close to the midpoint of the two. Every report in the set stated a detection wavelength, and 10 of them stated an integration threshold. The Journal has asked the laboratory to publish thresholds on all reports as a matter of routine.

Purity became this trade’s single figure of merit because it is the cheapest measurement to obtain and the easiest to compare. Peptide content, which determines how much drug is actually in a vial, costs several times as much and is quoted as a priced addition by most of the twenty companies in the Journal’s dossier programme rather than carried as a standard release test. Sterility and endotoxin are separate disciplines again, and are neither tested nor claimed.

Marek Doležal, analytical chemist and former QC laboratory manager, said the gap was predictable from the methods alone. "You can reconstruct almost the whole difference from the integration threshold. What you cannot reconstruct is why anyone thinks a number without a threshold is comparable to a number with one."

SGN’s dossier has been updated with this determination and with the company’s response to it. The dossier’s ordering box records the lead times, the minimum quantities and what a buyer should ask for at the point of order.