18 mg vial
Liraglutide: a 18 mg vial
What a 18 mg vial of Liraglutide becomes once it is mixed, and what each dose reported in the sources draws to on a syringe. Every figure is arithmetic on the vial size in the heading — none of it is a recommendation, and the doses are the ones our sources describe rather than ones we picked.
Leading with
18 mg + 3 mL bacteriostatic water = 6 mg/mL
Chosen because it puts the reported doses on readable marks of a 1 mL U-100 syringe. Other volumes are perfectly valid — the dilution table further down covers them, and the concentration changes what every dose draws to.
What each reported dose draws to
At 6 mg/mL, on a 1 mL U-100 syringe. Every row names the source it came from, and a trial protocol and a community convention are not the same kind of information.
| Goal | Dose | Units | Doses in this vial | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight management escalation, as approvedOnce daily, increasing by 0.6 mg each week · Subcutaneous | 600 mcg – 3 mg | 10 units – 50 units | 30 | Clinical trial |
| Type 2 diabetes, as approvedOnce daily · Subcutaneous | 600 mcg – 1.8 mg | 10 units – 30 units | 30 | Clinical trial |
Check every figure against the vial in front of you before drawing. Vials are filled with an overage and labels are not a guarantee. Change any of these numbers in the calculator.
Week by week
Published schedules only. Most compounds on this site have no week-by-week schedule from any source, and where that is the case this section does not appear rather than being filled in.
Weight management escalation, as approved
Approved label| Week | Dose | Units | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 600 mcg | 10 units | Once dailyStarting dose. |
| 2 | 1.2 mg | 20 units | Once daily |
| 3 | 1.8 mg | 30 units | Once daily |
| 4 | 2.4 mg | 40 units | Once daily |
| 5+ | 3 mg | 50 units | Once dailyMaintenance dose for weight management. |
Weekly steps rather than four-weekly, because liraglutide is a daily injection and reaches steady state far faster than the weekly compounds.
What the whole schedule costs
Vials of this size needed to work through each step, at 3 mL per vial. The dose changes as you go, so this is not one number times a number of weeks — it is each step costed separately and added up.
Weight management escalation, as approved
| Week | Dose | Doses | 18 mg vials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 600 mcg | 7 | 1 |
| 2 | 1.2 mg | 7 | 1 |
| 3 | 1.8 mg | 7 | 1 |
| 4 | 2.4 mg | 7 | 1 |
| 5+ | 3 mg | — | ongoing |
Reaching the end of the defined steps takes 4 vials of 18 mg over 4 weeks, and the last step continues indefinitely, so that is a floor rather than a total.
Steps whose dose exceeds this vial are marked rather than counted — at that point a larger vial is the answer, not more small ones. Nothing here accounts for a dropped vial, a held step or a dose your prescriber changes, all of which happen.
If you add a different amount of water
The same 18 mg of compound, at four common volumes. More water means a larger, easier-to-measure draw of a weaker solution; less water means the opposite. The amount of compound you inject is identical in every row — only the volume carrying it changes.
| Water added | Concentration | 600 mcg draws to |
|---|---|---|
| 1 mL | 18 mg/mL | 3.33 units units · 0.033 mL |
| 2 mL | 9 mg/mL | 6.67 units units · 0.067 mL |
| 3 mLshown above | 6 mg/mL | 10 units units · 0.1 mL |
| 5 mL | 3.6 mg/mL | 16.67 units units · 0.167 mL |
Storage
Before mixing
The approved product is a solution, not a powder. Refrigerated at 2–8 °C before first use.
After mixing
After first use, up to 30 days at room temperature below 30 °C or refrigerated. Protect from light and do not freeze.
Other vial sizes
The same compound, different arithmetic.
Arithmetic on the vial size named above and the doses our sources report. Nothing here is a recommendation, a protocol or medical advice, and no clinician has reviewed it. Speak to a licensed healthcare provider before acting on any of it.
Sources for the doses above are listed in full on the Liraglutide profile, each with the trial or label it came from.