Methodology
How a vial becomes a certificate.
Every number on this site is reproducible. Five steps, in the order they happen.
1Chain of custody
Where a vial goes, and who knows whose it is.
- 01SubmissionSample ID issued at submission — no personal data travels with the vial.
- 02ArrivalArrival logged, weight and seal photographed, split into sealed aliquots.
- 03AssaysEach assay run blind to the seller's identity.
- 04PublicationResults signed off, scored by formula, published with the seller named.
2The five assays
What each test answers, and why it is on the panel.
- IdentityLC-MS
- Is it even the compound you paid for? Purity testing cannot answer this — a vial can read 99% pure and be the wrong molecule entirely.
- PurityRP-HPLC
- What is the rest of the powder? Truncated and incomplete sequences are the ones that can trigger an immune response.
- ContentAmino acid analysis
- Did you get the milligrams you paid for? A 5 mg vial at 75% net peptide content holds 3.75 mg. Every dose off that label is short.
- SterilityLAL
- Bacterial endotoxin causes fever, chills, and blood-pressure drops when injected. Filtering does not remove it.
- ContaminantsICP-MS · GC
- Heavy metals from catalysts, and industrial solvent left over from synthesis.
3What we test for — and the limits
The published pass mark for every analyte.
| What is measured | How | Must be |
|---|---|---|
| Identity match | LC-MS — Weighs the molecule to confirm what it is. | Must match label |
| Peptide content | Amino acid analysis — Counts how much actual peptide is in the vial. | ≥ 95% of label |
| Chromatographic purity | RP-HPLC — Separates the powder into its parts to see what else is in there. | ≥ 98%; impurities ≤ 2% |
| Bacterial endotoxin | LAL — The test for bacterial endotoxin. | ≤ 10 EU/mg |
| Microbial bioburden | Plate count | ≤ 10 CFU/mg |
| Lead (Pb) | ICP-MS — Detects metals down to parts per million. | ≤ 0.5 ppm |
| Arsenic (As) | ICP-MS — Detects metals down to parts per million. | ≤ 1.5 ppm |
| Cadmium (Cd) | ICP-MS — Detects metals down to parts per million. | ≤ 0.5 ppm |
| Mercury (Hg) | ICP-MS — Detects metals down to parts per million. | ≤ 0.3 ppm |
| Acetonitrile | GC — Detects leftover solvent by vaporising the sample. | ≤ 410 ppm |
4The scoring formula
How the assays become one number out of 100.
- Purity
- What else is in the powder
- 40 / 100
- Content
- Whether the dose is the dose
- 30 / 100
- Sterility
- Endotoxin and bioburden
- 20 / 100
- Contaminants
- Metals and residual solvent
- 10 / 100
Before any of it
Identity is a gate, not a weight.
If the vial is not the compound on the label, the score is 0 and the four weights above never run. A pure vial of the wrong molecule is worth nothing.
Each is scored against the published limit above; the same arithmetic runs on every sample and nobody adjusts a number by hand.
How to read a score
- 75–100
- Excellent — Met every published limit.
- 40–74
- Poor — Missed at least one limit.
- 0–39
- Bad — Missed several, or is not the labelled compound at all.
One published formula runs on every sample. Identity is a gate: if the vial is not the labelled compound, the score is zero regardless of anything else.
5Dispute & retest
What a seller can do about a result they think is wrong.
Any named seller can dispute a result. The disputed certificate stays published — marked disputed — while a second sealed aliquot is re-assayed by an independent lab. If the retest overturns the result, both are shown with the reason. We never remove a contested result quietly.
What the record looks like once the formula has run
Every certificate sorted by score. A ranking tells you who is worst; this tells you whether the problem is a few bad actors or most of the market.
Anything under 75 fell short of at least one published limit. Under 40 failed more than one.
Every term, in plain words
A result nobody can read is not published in any meaningful sense, so every technical word on the record has a plain-English definition.