Independent analysis puts a FGP exenatide lot at 95.7%, against 94.1% on the certificate

Two laboratories analysing vials from the same exenatide lot have returned figures 2.5 percentage points apart. Janoshik reported 95.7%; Medutest reported a lower number on a shallower gradient with a tighter integration threshold. Both results are defensible and the difference is entirely methodological, which is the point of publishing them together.

The Journal purchased 18 vials from the same lot at retail and had four of them analysed separately, in order to distinguish vial-to-vial variation from method variation. Vial-to-vial agreement was within 0.4 percentage points. Method-to-method disagreement was an order of magnitude larger.

Reported figures across the set were: highest 95.7%, lowest 94.1%, median close to the midpoint of the two. Every report in the set stated a detection wavelength, and 8 of them stated an integration threshold. The Journal has asked the laboratory to publish thresholds on all reports as a matter of routine.

The wider context is that material sold for research use carries no regulatory release specification in any jurisdiction the Journal has examined. A certificate is a commercial document, not a compliance one, and its content is whatever the issuer chooses to put on it. That is the gap independent testing fills, and it fills it imperfectly.

"Content is the number that matters if you are doing arithmetic with a vial, and content is the number nobody sells," said Dr Emiko Tanabe, mass spectrometrist. "Purity is what you can afford. Content is what you need."

FGP’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.