Disclaimer

This is journalism, not medicine

The Compound Journal is a publication. It reports, analyses and documents. It does not diagnose, prescribe, treat, dispense, recommend or advise, and no article, table, calculator, reference page or letter in it constitutes medical advice. Reading this site does not create a clinical relationship with anyone.

No reader should start, stop, increase, reduce, delay, substitute or otherwise alter any treatment on the basis of anything published here. Decisions about medicines belong with a licensed clinician who has taken a history, examined the person concerned, and considered their particular circumstances. We cannot do any of those things and we do not attempt to.

Research-use-only compounds

A substantial part of this publication reports on material sold as "for research use only". Such compounds are not approved for human use in any jurisdiction. They are not manufactured to pharmaceutical standards, are not subject to a release specification, are not tested for sterility or bacterial endotoxin, and carry no assurance whatever that the contents correspond to the label. Our reporting on the quality of such material is not an endorsement of using it, and a favourable analytical result on one vial says nothing about another.

We report on this market because it exists, is large, and is otherwise described mainly by people with an interest in what you believe. Reporting on it is not endorsing it.

The calculators

The tools on our reference desk perform arithmetic. The reconstitution calculator converts between mass, volume and syringe graduations; it has no opinion about whether the numbers you enter are appropriate and no way of forming one. A correct calculation of an inappropriate dose is still an inappropriate dose.

Trial data

Every clinical figure in this publication describes a population under trial conditions, not an individual. Response distributions in the obesity programmes are wide and are not predicted by anything measurable before treatment begins. A reported mean is not a forecast, and our trial-data explorer exists partly to make the difference between a design and a headline harder to miss.

Vendor dossiers

A dossier is a documentary record: what we measured, what a company confirmed in writing, and what it did not. A Journal score is not a safety assessment, not a certification and not a recommendation to purchase. It says nothing about the specific vial in front of you, and the recurring finding of the programme is that batch-to-batch variation within a company frequently exceeds the difference between companies.

Currency of information

Prices, reimbursement rules, regulatory positions, availability and analytical results change. Every piece carries a publication date and figures should be read as accurate at that date and not afterwards. Where we know a position has changed we publish a correction or a new piece; we cannot guarantee that every page has been revisited.

Legal and regulatory matters

Our regulation coverage describes law and enforcement practice as we understand them from primary documents. It is not legal advice, statutes and guidance differ by jurisdiction and change, and nobody should determine what is lawful for them to do on the basis of a magazine article.

Independence

The Journal is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for any manufacturer, pharmacy, testing laboratory, distributor or vendor. It sells nothing. It carries labelled advertising and names every sponsor on its funding page. Trade names and company names appear in these pages for identification and reporting purposes only.

If you need help now

This publication is not an emergency service and cannot respond to a medical situation. If you are unwell, contact a clinician, a pharmacist or your local emergency service. If you are in difficulty and unsure where to turn, a pharmacist is very often the most accessible qualified person in any healthcare system, and asking one costs nothing.