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Peptide Calculator

Exenatide reconstitution calculator

Exenatide is a medicine approved in the United States and sold under brand names including Byetta and Bydureon. The schedules below are the dose escalations printed on those product labels, quoted as published reference and not as advice.

Also written as: Byetta, Bydureon

The calculator below is preloaded with an illustrative example so the arithmetic is visible straight away. It is not a suggested vial size, dilution or dose.

Research reference only. This tool performs arithmetic. It is not medical advice and it is not a substitute for a licensed clinician.

Reconstitution calculator

Your vial

mL

Optional inputs

Your inputs stay in the address bar, so a bookmark reopens this exact calculation. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Results

Syringe units
0.2 units

Rounded to the nearest half unit: 0

Draw volume
0.002 mL
Concentration
2.5 mg per mL
Per syringe unit
25 mcg
Whole doses in the vial
1,000
Left over after the last dose
0 mcg
Show the formulas
  • Concentration = peptide in the vial / bacteriostatic water
  • Per unit = concentration in mcg per mL / units per mL of the syringe
  • Draw volume = target dose / concentration
  • Syringe units = draw volume x units per mL of the syringe

Dose schedules printed on the label

Quoted from the approved product label as published reference. Not a recommendation, and not a schedule this site endorses.

Byetta

Weekly dose and label duration at each step of the schedule
Dose per week Duration on the label
0.005 mg 4 weeks
0.01 mg No fixed duration stated

Maximum stated on the label: 0.01 mg

Source: US prescribing information for Byetta (exenatide), Drugs@FDA

Elimination half life: 0.17 days US prescribing information for Byetta (exenatide), Drugs@FDA

This is the central calculator on the site. It takes the mass printed on a vial and the volume of bacteriostatic water you add to it, and returns the three numbers everything else depends on: the concentration of the reconstituted solution, the volume that contains a target amount, and how many units of that volume measures on an insulin syringe.

The arithmetic is three divisions and no model whatsoever. That is the point of putting it on the homepage. Reconstitution is bookkeeping, not inference, and if the arithmetic is right the answer is right regardless of what the peptide is.

It also computes what is left in the vial after the draw, and how many theoretical doses a vial contains, because those are the two questions that follow immediately from the same division.

The mass is fixed and the volume is the only free variable

Dissolving a peptide in water does not add anything to it. The dry mass in the vial is the amount you have, and the only thing water changes is the volume that mass is spread through. Concentration is a way of reporting those two numbers against each other, not a property the vial possesses. A vial of a given mass is that mass at every concentration on this page. Nothing about the volume of water added changes what is in the vial, and nothing about it changes how much peptide there is to work with in total.

That asymmetry is why the calculation on this page is so easy to state. The mass is known, because it is printed on the label, and the volume is chosen, because the volume is the thing you control. The concentration is then not an input but a consequence of those two. It also explains why asking for a more concentrated preparation means less water rather than more peptide, which is worth sitting with, because the two requests sound superficially similar and they differ by the whole vial. If you ever catch yourself solving for the mass from a concentration, the inputs have almost certainly been swapped, and the reverse calculator will show you so at once.

Why one vial has many concentrations and only one mass

The relationship between volume and concentration is strictly inverse, because the mass in the numerator is a constant and the denominator is yours to pick. Double the water and the concentration halves, exactly, with no approximation and no drift over repeated steps. That linearity is worth relying on: it means a result can be scaled without being recomputed, and it means a relative error in the volume you measured becomes the same relative error in the concentration, because a division passes relative error straight through. What it does not mean is that every concentration is equally usable. Some are too low for a peptide to dissolve at, and no arithmetic available here can notice.

There is a second view of the same thing, through ratios. Since concentration is mass over volume, a target concentration requires a volume in direct proportion to the mass. Two vials of different sizes can only reach the same concentration if their volumes stand in the same ratio to their masses, and when they do, every number downstream comes out identical. That is a useful coincidence and a decent check rather than a general rule. The dilution factor calculator works in ratio language when that is how a method states the dilution, and the C1V1 dilution calculator is the right tool when the starting point is already a solution rather than a solid.

A syringe reading is a volume wearing a disguise

On a U-100 syringe the barrel is divided so that the printed number equals the volume in microlitres, one marking being ten of them. The unit count this page returns is therefore not an independent measurement. It is the draw volume re-expressed, and it inherits exactly the resolution of the barrel, because nothing in the arithmetic can add precision that the instrument does not have. Treat the unit count as a volume and the chain stays consistent from end to end. Treat it as an amount and a factor of ten appears with no warning at all.

On a U-40 syringe the same liquid reads a quarter as many units, because the calibration is coarser rather than because anything about the solution changed. That single selection is worth more than every other input on the page combined, which is why the comparison of U-100 with U-40 syringes is worth reading before any numbers are trusted. The remaining trap is early rounding: rounding the concentration before the draw division puts a proportional error into the draw volume, the unit count, the remaining amount and the dose count simultaneously, and since all four come from the same numerator it does not average out. The guide to rounding and small volumes covers that arithmetic.

Checking the answer without a second calculator

Dimensional analysis is the check. A mass divided by a volume must come out in mg per mL. An amount divided by a concentration must come out in mL. A volume multiplied by markings per millilitre must come out in markings. Each step fixes the units of every step after it, so if any result does not carry the units it should, the fault is upstream and there is no need to look further down the chain. The value of this check is that it does not depend on trusting the calculator, which matters, because a check that uses the same tool it is checking is not a check.

There is also a round trip available. Take the concentration this page produces, offer it to the reverse calculation as the target concentration, and the vial mass should come back out of it unchanged. A result that fails to survive that journey has a transposed mass and volume somewhere inside it, which is the most common fault in this family and the easiest one to make twice. The same idea appears in the dose count: multiply the amount drawn by the number of doses reported and you should land back on the vial mass, to within whatever was rounded. The molarity calculator runs the same division in molar terms if the units need changing, and doses per vial works through the second check in more detail.

How this calculator works

Adding water to a dry peptide does not change the amount of peptide, only the volume it occupies. So the amount in the vial is fixed, and the concentration is that amount divided by the volume you added.

Once the concentration is known, a target amount is converted to a draw volume by dividing the amount by the concentration. On a U-100 insulin syringe, which carries one hundred unit markings per millilitre, one unit is exactly ten microlitres, so the draw volume in mL multiplied by one hundred gives the unit count directly.

On a U-40 syringe the same volume reads as a quarter as many units, because the calibration is coarser. This is the single most common source of a factor of four error in this field, and it is entirely a syringe choice rather than a calculation error.

Remaining amount is the vial amount minus the amount just drawn, and the number of theoretical doses is the vial amount divided by the target amount. Both are exact arithmetic on the assumption that nothing is lost, which in practice is never quite true.

The formulas

  • concentration = vial amount / diluent volume

    vial amount
    the mass of peptide in the vial, in mg
    diluent volume
    the volume of bacteriostatic water added, in mL

    The master calculation. Every other output on this page follows from it.

  • draw volume = target amount / concentration

    Both in compatible units, which means mg and mg/mL giving mL.

  • syringe units = draw volume in mL x syringe units per mL

    One hundred on a U-100 syringe, forty on a U-40.

  • remaining = vial amount - drawn amount

    After the draw.

  • theoretical doses per vial = vial amount / target amount

    A whole number is a whole number of doses; a fraction is the last partial dose.

Worked example

A 5 mg vial reconstituted with 2 mL, and a 0.25 mg target

Illustrative example. The numbers are chosen to make the arithmetic easy to check. They are not a dose, a protocol or a recommendation.

Given

Vial amount
5 mg
Bacteriostatic water added
2 mL
Target amount
0.25 mg
Syringe
U-100
  1. Concentration
    Substitution
    5 mg / 2 mL
    Result
    2.5 mg/mL
  2. Amount in the target draw volume, taken as given
    Substitution
    0.25 mg
    Result
    0.25 mg
  3. Draw volume
    Substitution
    0.25 mg / 2.5 mg per mL
    Result
    0.1 mL
  4. Syringe units on a U-100, that is 10 units
    Substitution
    0.1 mL x 100 units per mL
    Result
    10 units
  5. Remaining in the vial
    Substitution
    5 mg - 0.25 mg
    Result
    4.75 mg
  6. Theoretical doses per vial
    Substitution
    5 mg / 0.25 mg
    Result
    20

What this shows

The whole chain in six lines. Twenty theoretical doses at exactly 0.25 mg each uses the vial up completely, which is a good sanity check on the arithmetic: the last dose of twenty is a full dose, not a fraction of one. The numbers in this example are invented for the arithmetic. They are not a dose, and they are not a recommendation.

Understanding the inputs

vialAmount
The mass of peptide in the vial, from the label. This is the mass of active peptide, not the gross weight of the vial with its stopper and cap.
Watch for: A gross vial weight, typically 0.1 g or more, typed into this field. That is the largest and most common error on this page, and it produces a concentration that is wrong by an order of magnitude or more.
vialUnit
The unit the vial amount is in: mg or mcg. Choose it deliberately rather than accepting the default.
Watch for: Entering 2500 when the label says 2.5 mg. A value that looks plausible in mcg but is a thousand times too large is the classic mg versus mcg error.
waterLabel
The volume of bacteriostatic water added to the vial, in mL.
Watch for: This is the volume added, not the capacity of the vial and not the volume of the finished solution. Adding 2 mL to a vial that holds 5 mL gives 2.5 mg/mL, not 1 mg/mL.
doseLabel
The target amount you want in the syringe.
Watch for: This is an amount, not a volume and not a syringe reading. A quantity of units belongs in the syringe field instead.
syringe
The syringe calibration: U-100, one hundred unit markings per mL, or U-40, forty per mL.
Watch for: The most consequential single choice on the page. The same draw volume reads ten units on a U-100 and two and a half on a U-40. Reading a U-40 marking as a U-100 one gives a fourfold overstatement.

Understanding the results

concentration
The concentration of the reconstituted solution in mg/mL. The single number the rest of the site is built on.
draw
The volume of solution containing the target amount, in mL. This is a volume of solution, not of peptide.
units
The draw volume expressed in units on the selected syringe. On a U-100 this is simply the volume in microlitres, since one unit is ten microlitres.
remaining
The amount left in the vial after the draw. It does not account for dead volume in the syringe or for anything left in the vial that will not be drawn.
dosesPerVial
The number of times the target amount can be taken from the vial. A fraction means the final dose is smaller.

Units explained

mg
Milligram. One thousandth of a gram, and the unit vial labels use.
mcg
Microgram, one thousandth of a milligram. A thousandfold smaller than mg, and the two are constantly confused.
mL
Millilitre. The unit of diluent volume and of concentration.
mg/mL
Milligrams per millilitre. Mass concentration, and the unit a reconstitution result is expressed in.
Syringe unit
A marking on an insulin syringe. On a U-100 syringe one unit equals 10 microlitres, so the unit count reads the volume in microlitres directly.
U-100
An insulin syringe with 100 unit markings per mL. One unit equals 10 microlitres.
U-40
An insulin syringe with 40 unit markings per mL. One unit equals 25 microlitres, so the same volume reads a quarter as many units.
IU
International unit, a measure of biological activity. Deliberately absent from this calculation, because an IU is substance specific and there is no universal conversion to a mass. See the unit converters page.

Common mistakes

  • Confusing milligrams with micrograms, a factor of exactly one thousand.
  • Reading a U-40 syringe as a U-100, a factor of exactly four in the other direction.
  • Entering the gross weight of the vial rather than the labelled mass of the peptide.
  • Using the vial capacity as the diluent volume.
  • Entering the volume of diluent you intend to add as the target draw volume, or the other way round.
  • Rounding the concentration early. Rounding 2.5 to 3 before dividing gives a 20 percent error in every downstream number.
  • Reading the syringe unit count as a dose. It is a volume, expressed in the calibration of the syringe you selected.
  • Treating any of these numbers as medical guidance. This page does arithmetic and nothing else.

Important limitations

  • It assumes the peptide dissolves completely. A vial that will not dissolve properly has a lower effective concentration than this division suggests, and no arithmetic can detect that.
  • It assumes no loss. In practice a reconstitution loses a little peptide to the filter, the vial wall and the syringe dead volume, so a vial yields slightly fewer real doses than the theoretical count.
  • It is not temperature aware. Peptide handling guidance is a matter for the relevant product documentation, not for this calculator.
  • It is arithmetic. It does not recommend an amount, a frequency, a compound or a treatment, and the example above is invented for the sake of showing the arithmetic.

Molecular basics

Elemental formula
C184H282N50O60S
Average molecular weight
4,187 g/mol

Source: PubChem Compound CID 45588096, NCBI

Why calculate this compound?

Every calculator on this site performs the same arithmetic whatever is in the vial, and this page presets it with numbers chosen to show the working. The preset is an illustration, not a recommendation: it is not a suggested vial size, a suggested dilution or a suggested dose.

The molecular weight above is what lets you work in molar terms. Dividing a mass by it gives moles, and a molar concentration is comparable between compounds in a way a mass is not: 5 mg of one peptide and 5 mg of another are different numbers of molecules, while 5 micromoles of each are the same.

Worked example

Illustrative example. The numbers are chosen to make the arithmetic easy to check. They are not a dose, a protocol or a recommendation.

  1. Peptide in the vial: 5 mg, Bacteriostatic water added: 2 mL
  2. Concentration: 5 / 2 = 2.5 mg/mL
  3. Draw volume: 0.005 / 2.5 = 0.002 mL
  4. Whole doses in the vial: 5 / 0.005 = 1,000

The check that catches almost every error: multiply the concentration by the draw volume and you should get back the amount you wanted. If those three numbers do not satisfy that, one of them is wrong, and the arithmetic will tell you which way to look.

What this page does not tell you

  • This page does not recommend a dose, a frequency, a schedule or a treatment, and it does not claim that any compound is safe or effective for any purpose. The arithmetic is exact; what to do with it is not this site's business.
  • The calculator is preloaded with an illustrative example so the working is visible on arrival. Those numbers are not a protocol.
  • Any dose schedule below is quoted from the approved product label named beside it. That label is the source of truth for its own product, and it is not a recommendation to follow it.
  • The molecular weight is for the free peptide. A salt form, a counter ion or a hydrate carries additional mass, so a purchased material can weigh more than this figure by a known and purchaser's-specific amount.
  • A molecular weight says nothing about purity, identity, potency or stability. It is a formula, not an assay result.

Frequently asked questions

How do I work out the concentration of a reconstituted peptide vial?
Divide the peptide in the vial by the bacteriostatic water you added. A 5 mg vial reconstituted with 2 mL of water is 2.5 mg per mL, which is 2500 mcg per mL. Every other figure follows from that one: the draw volume for a dose is the dose divided by the concentration, and the units on the barrel are that volume multiplied by the units per mL of your syringe scale.
How many units is 0.25 mg of semaglutide on a U-100 syringe?
It depends entirely on the concentration of your vial, which is why no single answer exists. If a 10 mg vial was reconstituted with 2 mL of bacteriostatic water it holds 5 mg per mL, so 0.25 mg is 0.05 mL, which reads as 5 units on a U-100 barrel. Change the water volume and that unit count changes with it.
How much bacteriostatic water should I add to a 5 mg vial?
This site does not recommend a volume, because the right one depends on the product you have and its own labelling. Arithmetically the volume only decides how large the draw is: 1 mL makes a 5 mg vial twice as concentrated as 2 mL, so the same dose is half the volume and half the units, which is harder to measure accurately. Larger volumes give bigger, easier readings for the same dose.

Frequently asked questions

What does a peptide reconstitution calculator do?

It converts a lyophilised peptide amount in milligrams into the volume of BAC-water to add and the syringe units to draw, so you can prepare a vial without guessing.

How do I use the reconstitution calculator?

Enter the peptide mass in milligrams, the BAC-water volume in millilitres, and your target dose in micrograms. The calculator shows the concentration, the volume per dose, and the syringe unit marking.

What units does the calculator support?

The default units are milligrams for peptide mass, millilitres for water volume, and micrograms for dose. The result also shows the volume in insulin syringe units (based on U-100 markings).

Is the reconstitution calculator free?

Yes. All calculators on this site are free and run entirely in your browser. No data is sent to a server.

What is the formula for peptide reconstitution?

Concentration (mg/mL) equals peptide mass (mg) divided by water volume (mL). Volume per dose (mL) equals target dose (mcg) divided by concentration (mcg/mL). Syringe units equal volume (mL) multiplied by 100 for a U-100 syringe.

Why does the calculator use U-100 syringe markings?

U-100 insulin syringes are the standard for peptide measurement. Each unit on a U-100 syringe represents 0.01 mL, making it easy to measure small volumes accurately.

Can I use this calculator for any peptide?

The calculator performs arithmetic on the numbers you enter. It works for any lyophilised peptide, but it does not give medical advice or dosing recommendations. Always verify with your source.

What if I enter zero or leave a field empty?

The calculator shows an error message and does not produce a result. All three inputs (mass, volume, dose) must be greater than zero.

Learn more

Disclaimer

This site is a calculator and a reference. It is not medical advice and it is not a substitute for a licensed clinician.

Brand names are the trademarks of their respective owners. This site is not affiliated with any of them.

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