Adding the clinical framing, because it changes how the question reads.

Injection site reactions and injection-site reactions: I was getting red, itchy welts at every injection site that lasted 3-4 days. Turned out I was allergic to the alcohol swab, not the medication!

Switched to chlorhexidine prep pads and the reaction stopped completely. If you're having persistent injection site reactions, consider this possibility before blaming the drug.

From the other side of the consultation, briefly.

Peptide degradation indicators for injection-site reactions — how to know if your medication has gone bad:

• Visual: cloudiness, particles, color change (should be clear and colorless)
• Tactile: unusual resistance when drawing up (viscosity change)
• Efficacy: sudden loss of appetite suppression with same dose
• Side effects: unexpected injection site reactions

If any of these occur, stop using the vial and open a fresh one. Document the issue and report to your pharmacy. Degraded peptides are at best ineffective, at worst potentially harmful due to degradation products.

traveltech_sara said:

Peptide degradation indicators for injection-site reactions — how to know if your medication has gone bad: Visual: cloudiness, particles, color change…

Same pattern here, and in the same order.

traveltech_sara said:

Peptide degradation indicators for injection-site reactions — how to know if your medication has gone bad: Visual: cloudiness, particles, color change…

Adding the part of the answer the thread has not reached. Read four things before the headline number. The population, because trial populations are selected and supported in ways that real cohorts are not. The comparator, because "better than placebo" and "better than the current standard" are different claims and get reported identically. The primary endpoint as pre-registered, because a secondary endpoint promoted after the fact is a hypothesis rather than a finding. And the completion rate, because a large effect in the half of participants who finished is a different result from a large effect in everybody enrolled.

I would rather be corrected than agreed with, if it comes to it.

Moderator note: good thread. Keeping it here rather than moving it, because the question is general enough to be useful. Tagging this one for the weekly digest.