Semaglutide 5 mg reconstitution calculator

Every FDA-approved semaglutide is a ready-made product: Ozempic pens and single-dose syringes, Wegovy single-dose pens and syringes and the FlexTouch pen, and tablets (Ozempic label, Wegovy label, tablets label). So a 5 mg vial you add water to is compounded or sold as a “research” product. Compounded drugs aren’t FDA-approved: the FDA doesn’t check their safety, effectiveness or quality before they’re marketed (FDA). Read the active ingredient on your label, as well as the mg. The FDA says salt forms such as semaglutide sodium and semaglutide acetate are different active ingredients from the one in the approved drugs, and it knows of no lawful basis for compounding with them. It has also warned sellers of semaglutide labeled “for research purposes” or “not for human consumption” that was sold for people to use (FDA). If your label names a salt or carries either phrase, talk to a pharmacist before you mix.

In its July 2024 alert on compounded semaglutide, the FDA describes a prescriber who intended “0.25 milligrams (5 units)” (FDA). That pairing only holds at 5 mg/mL, which is this vial mixed with 1 mL of water. With 2 mL, the same 0.25 mg is 10 units; with 2.5 mL, it’s 12.5 units. So a units instruction written for one mix is wrong for another. The same alert reports patients told to draw 5 units (0.05 mL) on a 100-unit syringe who drew 50 units instead. With 1 mL in this vial, 50 units is 2.5 mg: half the vial. Ask for your dose in mg as well as units, and check both against the strength on your label.

In a 5 mg vial, the water you add changes how much each syringe size can hold. Each unit is 0.01 mL, so a full 30-unit syringe (0.3 mL) holds 1.5 mg with 1 mL of water, 0.75 mg with 2 mL and 0.6 mg with 2.5 mL. A full 100-unit syringe holds 5 mg (the whole vial), 2.5 mg or 2 mg. If the units for your prescribed amount don’t fit on your syringe, ask your pharmacist what to do. The FDA has seen patients given syringes much larger than their prescribed volume, and asks prescribers and compounders to supply the right syringe size and show how to measure the dose with it (FDA).

Ozempic pens hold 0.68, 1.34 or 2.68 mg/mL. You dial the dose in mg, never in units, and the label says not to set it by counting clicks (Ozempic label). This vial makes 5, 2.5 or 2 mg/mL at the example volumes, and none of those matches a pen. With 1 mL of water it’s more than seven times the strength of the 2 mg pen (0.68 mg/mL), so the same volume holds more than seven times the semaglutide. Nothing you read off a pen translates into units here. If you move from a pen to a vial, or back, work out your units again from the mg your prescriber gave you and check them with your pharmacist.