Independent analysis puts a GL Biochem liraglutide lot at 98.5%, against 94.4% on the certificate

Janoshik has published a purity determination of 98.5% on a 2 mg vial of liraglutide supplied by GL Biochem, against a figure of 94.4% on the certificate that accompanied the vial. The sample was submitted by the Journal in March 2026 as part of a continuing programme of arm’s-length purchasing, and the vendor was told before the order was placed that any result would be published.

The Journal purchased 2300 vials from the same lot and had 12 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.

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 not offered as a standard release test by any of the twenty companies in the Journal’s dossier programme. Sterility and endotoxin are separate disciplines again, and are neither tested nor claimed.

Lorcan Feeney, analytical services director at an independent laboratory, was more cautious. "One lot tells you about one lot. I would not draw a conclusion about a company from a single determination, and I would not let a company draw one either."

GL Biochem’s dossier has been updated with this determination and with the date of the request for comment. The dossier’s "what we could not verify" box records the questions still outstanding.