What we test, and what it costs
Every price is on this page. Every assay states what it cannot tell you. Both of those are unusual in this category, and neither costs us anything we should want to keep.
Unless a test says otherwise, it includes
Identity, purity and mass — RP-HPLC with LC-MS confirmation
- Turnaround
- 5 business days
- Minimum sample
- 10 mg lyophilised
- Additional vials, same lot
- $40 each
The certificate states the column, gradient, detection wavelength and the integration threshold the purity figure was calculated at. A purity number without those is not a measurement anyone can reproduce.
Single peptides
Blends
Bioregulators
Other materials
Water for injection already includes Bacterial endotoxin, so those are not charged again as add-ons.
Add-ons
Priced to what each actually costs to run. Sterility genuinely costs more than moisture; charging one flat fee for both would just mean overcharging for the cheap ones.
Bacterial endotoxin
$150USP <85>, kinetic chromogenic LAL
How much bacterial endotoxin is present, reported in EU per milligram of peptide, with the interference spike recovery printed alongside it.
What it does not tell you
It says nothing about sterility — a sterile product can be pyrogenic, because endotoxin is heat-stable and survives what kills the organism that made it. It also does not cover non-endotoxin pyrogens. And because a research chemical has no established dose or route, no compendial limit applies to it: we report the measured value and a reference calculation, never a pass mark against a threshold we invented.
Adds 3 business days
Microbial enumeration (bioburden)
$140USP <61> and <62>
Total aerobic microbial count, total yeast and mould count, and absence of specified organisms.
What it does not tell you
It is not a sterility test and does not claim to be. For a lyophilised powder, which is what every research peptide is as supplied, this is usually the scientifically correct question — and sterility is usually the wrong one. We would rather sell you this than sell you the more expensive test that answers less.
Adds 5 business days
Water content
$95USP <921>, coulometric Karl Fischer · peptides and small molecules
How much of the powder is water — typically three to ten percent, and part of the reason a 10 mg vial rarely contains 10 mg of peptide.
What it does not tell you
It does not identify anything else in the vial, and it is not a purity measurement.
Adds 2 business days
TFA counterion
$95USP <503.1> · peptides only
How much trifluoroacetate is bound to the peptide — commonly five to twenty percent of the mass, and invisible to a purity assay because it does not absorb.
What it does not tell you
It does not measure acetate or other counterions, which need ion chromatography and are quoted separately.
Adds 2 business days
Net peptide content
$60Mass balance, from water and counterion · peptides only
How many milligrams of peptide your vial actually contains. This is the number most people believe purity already told them, and it does not.
What it does not tell you
It is derived by mass balance rather than measured independently, and the certificate states that. An orthogonal assay by amino acid analysis is available separately.
Requires Water content and TFA counterion, because it is calculated from them — $250 together.
No additional turnaround
Sterility
$150USP <71>, membrane filtration
Whether the unit we tested showed growth in two media over not less than fourteen days.
What it does not tell you
It does not establish that your batch is sterile. Testing a single vial at a one-percent contamination rate has roughly a one-percent chance of detecting it — USP's own guidance chapter says the sampling imposes a significant statistical limitation. The vial we test is destroyed. There is no legitimate seven-day version of this test.
Adds 16 business days