Independent analysis puts a SSA semaglutide lot at 97.6%, against 94.1% on the certificate

An independent purity determination on semaglutide material sold by SSA has returned 97.6%, a figure 1.7 percentage points below the number printed on the accompanying certificate. The analysis was performed by PeptideMeter on a vial the Journal bought as an ordinary retail customer in January 2026 and posted unopened.

The Journal purchased 4400 vials from the same lot and had 8 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.

The Journal purchased 4400 vials from the same lot and had 8 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.

Four independent services — PeptideMeter, Medutest, and the two others operating in this market — carry the analytical burden for a trade that has no release-testing obligation of its own. Each is paid by whoever submits the sample, which is usually the vendor. The Journal’s position is that a submitter-pays model is workable but that its incentive structure has to be stated whenever a result is quoted as verification.

"Content is the number that matters if you are doing arithmetic with a vial, and content is the number nobody sells," said Havel Novotný, independent laboratory quality manager. "Purity is what you can afford. Content is what you need."

SSA’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.