Medutest result on a Xianning orforglipron lot lands 2.7 points below the supplier’s figure

An independent purity determination on orforglipron material sold by TFC has returned 96.6%, a figure 2.7 percentage points below the number printed on the accompanying certificate. The analysis was performed by Medutest on a vial the Journal bought as an ordinary retail customer in January 2024 and posted unopened.

Reported figures across the set were: highest 96.6%, lowest 92.9%, median close to the midpoint of the two. Every report in the set stated a detection wavelength, and 13 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 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.

Sinéad Corrigan, patient advocate and former trial participant, 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."

TFC’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.