— Recovery · Reference
How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
In the grey market the COA has become a marketing asset: screenshotted, cropped and posted as proof. Knowing how to read one settles most questions in about two minutes.
— Treatments mentioned
A certificate of analysis is a laboratory document stating what one sample of one batch contained when it was tested on one date, and it tells you nothing about the vial in your hand unless the batch number on the certificate matches the batch number on your vial. Four things determine whether it is evidence or decoration: whether an independent named laboratory ran the test, whether identity was confirmed analytically rather than assumed from a label, whether the purity figure is supported by an actual chromatogram, and whether the batch and date match your product. A COA also does not establish sterility, endotoxin levels, or the concentration in your finished vial, which are three of the things that matter most for an injectable.
In the grey market the COA has become a marketing asset: screenshotted, cropped and posted as proof. Knowing how to read one settles most questions in about two minutes.
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
The short answer
| Field on the certificate | What good looks like | What it means if it is missing or wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Testing laboratory | A named independent lab with an address and contact details | A certificate on the seller's own letterhead is a claim, not verification |
| Product identity | The exact peptide named, with mass spectrometry confirming expected molecular weight | A name typed on a page is a label, not a test |
| Purity | An HPLC percentage with the chromatogram trace reproduced | A number without a trace cannot be checked by anyone |
| Method | HPLC and mass spectrometry, stated by name | If neither appears, ask what was actually done |
| Batch or lot number | Matches the number printed on your vial | A certificate for a different batch describes a different product |
| Test date | Recent, and after the batch was made | An old date with new product means it was never tested |
| Signature and reviewer | A named analyst or quality reviewer | Anonymous documents are not accountable to anyone |
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
What a certificate of analysis is, structurally
Who issues it, and who signs it
The issuer is the laboratory that performed the analysis, not the company selling the product. ICH Q7, the good manufacturing practice guide for active pharmaceutical ingredients, says certificates "should be dated and signed by authorised personnel of the quality unit(s) and should show the name, address and telephone number of the original manufacturer," and should "list each test performed in accordance with compendial or customer requirements, including the acceptance limits, and the numerical results obtained."
That is the whole checklist: each test named, an acceptance limit for each, a numerical result for each, a date, a signature, an identifiable organization. US regulation expects the same underlying record. 21 CFR 211.194 requires laboratory records to carry the sample description and lot number, the method used, "a complete record of all data secured in the course of each test," how results compare with established standards, and the signatures of the analyst and a second reviewer.
The sentence at the bottom of every honest report
Real reports carry a scope limitation, usually the most important line on the page. The reports behind Pepti's published lot data say it plainly: "Results apply only to the tested sample(s) as received." The laboratory tested a sample somebody sent it, in the condition it arrived, on one day. It is not asserting that the rest of the batch is identical, that the sample was drawn representatively, or that anything is true of your container.
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
How to read a single result line
— Spec, result, method
The specification is the acceptance criterion agreed before the test ran. The result is what the instrument measured. The method is how, which determines what the result means at all.
A result with no specification is a measurement with no verdict. A specification with no method is a verdict with no basis. A method with no number — just "Pass" — is a verdict whose margin you cannot see. Certificates showing all three are the ones you can reason about, which is why Pepti prints all three for every test on every lot at /quality/lab-results.
— Reading a percent-of-label assay
Potency is reported as a percentage of what the label claims, and the common acceptance window is 90.0% to 110.0% of label. The percentage is not a quality score: 99.8% is not better than 94.1% in any way that reaches a patient, and the gap sits inside ordinary process and assay variation.
A result at the edge is still a pass. One tirzepatide lot in Pepti's data assayed at 110.0% of label — 5.498 mg/mL against a 4.50–5.50 mg/mL range. A specification is a line, not a gradient. An edge result is a reason to want the number rather than a bare "Pass," not a reason to treat a conforming batch as failing. Read the units alongside the percentage: "105.3% of label — 3159 mcg/mL measured vs 3000 mcg/mL label" lets you check the arithmetic, and a bare "105.3%" does not.
— Reading "< 2 EU/mL", and why it is not zero
"< 2 EU/mL" does not mean no endotoxin was present. It means the assay's quantitation limit was 2 endotoxin units per milliliter and the sample fell below it — the certificate reporting the sensitivity of the method rather than inventing a number the instrument never produced. Fabricated certificates tend to print clean absolutes, "0 EU/mL" or "100.00% pure", because whoever typed them did not know that instruments report limits, not zeroes.
A related pattern: some certificates print the result field as a limit, such as "NMT 350 EU/mL" (not more than 350), restating the specification instead of giving a measurement. Several GLP-1 lots in Pepti's data read this way. That is weaker than "4 EU/mL" against a 350 EU/mL limit — both are passes, and only one shows the margin.
— When no acceptance range is printed at all
Some reports give a result and no specification. Five lots on Pepti's results page are like this: the Eagle Analytical reports for Mills Pharmacy lots print a measured potency but, as each entry states, "the report prints no acceptance range for potency." One, a sermorelin cartridge lot, assayed at 90.7% of label — which under the conventional window conforms, narrowly. The correct thing to say is what the page says: the measurement was 90.7% and no range was stated. Supplying the missing specification on the certificate's behalf, in either direction, is the error.
Read the small print under the method too. The same reports carry a caveat Pepti quotes verbatim: "The potency method(s) used for testing passed system suitability requirements per Eagle SOP 2.500.001. Product-specific method validation is not available for this sample." The instrument was demonstrably working; the method was not validated for this preparation specifically. That is a real limit on the number's weight, and exactly the line a marketing use of the document would crop out.
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
What each test is and what it proves
— Identity
Identity answers one question: is the molecule in this vial the molecule on the label? Nothing else answers it. Potency measures how much of something is present; purity measures what share of detected material sits under the main peak. Neither confirms a sequence.
The strong method is mass spectrometry, comparing measured molecular weight against the calculated weight for the named peptide; stronger still is tandem MS or amino acid sequencing, which reads the chain rather than weighing it. The weak method, common on release certificates, is retention time comparison — the sample peak elutes where a reference standard elutes, so it is presumed to be the same compound. Pepti's GLP-1 certificates state this explicitly as "identity: sample peak retention time conforms to standard." That is real evidence and not proof, because two compounds can co-elute.
— Potency, or assay against label
Potency is the quantitative question: how many milligrams per milliliter against how many the label claims. It is the test most directly connected to what a dose delivers, because a syringe measures volume, not drug.
On Pepti's lots the method is printed three ways: "USP <621>", the compendial chromatography chapter, on the Eagle reports; "HPLC assay" on the Biolink reports; and a named in-house assay on the SaphoBio reports. All three are chromatographic separations quantified against a reference standard. Biolink prints a 90.0%–110.0% specification, SaphoBio a per-strength range in mg/mL at ±10% of claimed potency, Eagle none.
For a blend, potency belongs per component. One three-peptide cartridge lot reports CJC-1295 at 99.4%, ipamorelin acetate at 103.6% and sermorelin acetate at 99.9%, each assayed separately. A single figure for a four-peptide blend is weaker, because it cannot tell you which component the number belongs to.
— Purity by HPLC
Purity is a proportion, not an absolute: the main peak's area divided by total detected peak area at a given wavelength. Every word is a qualifier. "Detected" excludes what the detector is blind to at that wavelength; "peak area" excludes what does not elute; water, salts and counterions are typically not in the denominator. A 99% purity figure describes the visible chromatographic profile — useful, and narrower than most readers assume. None of the 205 lots currently published on Pepti's results page report purity, because none of the release certificates ran a separate purity test, and each page states that rather than leaving the reader to assume.
— Sterility, USP General Chapter 71
Sterility matters most for anything injected and is the test most often absent from a posted certificate. FDA names the compendial method directly in its good manufacturing practice guidance for compounding outsourcing facilities: "Sterility testing should be conducted using USP General Chapter <71> Sterility Tests. Any other method used for sterility testing should be validated." The classical method incubates sample units in growth media and watches for turbidity. It is growth-based, so it takes days, and destructive — the units tested are consumed.
Validated rapid alternatives are permitted, and FDA points to USP General Chapter <1223> Validation of Alternative Microbiological Methods. Pepti's lots use three: Celsis rapid sterility by direct inoculation, ScanRDI, and a qPCR method described as "validated per USP <1223>." All 205 lots report a sterility result and all pass. The federal rule is short — 21 CFR 211.167(a): "For each batch of drug product purporting to be sterile and/or pyrogen-free, there shall be appropriate laboratory testing to determine conformance to such requirements."
— Bacterial endotoxins, USP General Chapter 85
Endotoxin is a fragment of the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria. It survives the filtration and heat that kill the organism that produced it, which means a preparation can be sterile and still be pyrogenic. The compendial test is USP General Chapter <85>, Bacterial Endotoxins Test, which FDA names in its guidance on pyrogen and endotoxins testing.
The limit is not universal. Pepti's lots carry limits of 350, 700 and 1500 EU/mL depending on the preparation, because the compendial limit derives from the maximum dose a patient could receive over a given period and the route it is given by. FDA makes the same point, warning that a material labeled nonpyrogenic does not guarantee the finished product meets its own limit "because starting materials, including FDA-approved products, may have been tested against different endotoxin limits, depending on the intended dose and the route of administration."
So never read the EU/mL alone; read it against the limit beside it. One lot, a BPC-157 and TB-500 cartridge, reports 5.06 EU/mL against a 1500 EU/mL limit — a measured value with a large margin, and more informative than a "< 2" that tells you only where the assay stopped looking.
— Particulate matter, pH, and container closure integrity
These three are the tests most often absent from a compounded preparation's release certificate, and none of Pepti's 205 lots report any of them.
Injected solutions should be free of visible particles and under counted limits for subvisible ones. FDA's compounding guidance points to USP General Chapter <788> Particulate Matter in Injections for the subvisible counts and USP General Chapter <790> Visible Particulates in Injections for the visible limit. The visible check is one a patient can partly repeat: a solution that should be clear and is cloudy, or carries flecks, is not to be injected whatever a certificate says.
pH is measured under USP General Chapter <791> and matters because peptide stability and solubility are pH-dependent; FDA lists pH among the specifications it recommends for aqueous compounded formulations. Container closure integrity asks whether vial and stopper together keep the outside out for the product's dated life, with methods in USP General Chapter <1207> Package Integrity Evaluation—Sterile Products. It tests the container rather than the solution, so it is usually run on a container-closure system rather than every lot, and its absence from a lot certificate is normal.
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
What each test actually establishes
The two standard analyses answer different questions, and conflating them is how a misleading certificate works.
| Test | The question it answers | The question it does not answer |
|---|---|---|
| Mass spectrometry | Is the molecular weight consistent with the peptide named? | Whether it is pure, sterile, or present at the stated amount |
| HPLC | What proportion of the material is the main peak? | What the other peaks are, whether the sample is sterile, or what is in your vial |
| Amino acid analysis or sequencing, where present | Is the sequence what it should be? | Purity or sterility |
| Water content, acetate content | How much of the mass is not peptide | Nothing about biological suitability |
| Sterility and bacterial endotoxin testing | Whether the preparation is suitable for injection on those measures | Identity or potency |
That last row is the one that almost never appears on a grey-market certificate. Purity and sterility are unrelated properties. A powder can be 99 percent pure and carry bacterial endotoxin, and endotoxin is not removed by a filter that removes bacteria.
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
How to read a purity figure without being misled
"99.2 percent purity by HPLC" sounds definitive. Three questions make it meaningful.
Percent of what, by which detector? HPLC purity is normally area percent: the main peak as a share of total detected peak area at a given wavelength. It is a proportion of what the detector saw, not a proportion of the vial's total mass. Water, counterions and salts frequently are not in that denominator.
Is the chromatogram shown? The trace is the evidence. It shows the shape of the main peak, whether it is resolved from what sits beside it, and how large the impurity peaks are. A typed number with no trace is unverifiable by anyone, including a chemist.
Net peptide content, separately? A lyophilised peptide's mass includes water and counterion. Net peptide content answers how much of the powder is actually peptide, and it is a different number from HPLC purity. A vial can be high-purity and still contain less peptide than the label implies, which is one mechanism behind underdosed grey-market product.
For a finished sterile solution rather than a bulk powder, potency against label is the more decisive of the two, because it measures what a syringe delivers. Purity describes the material; potency describes the preparation.
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
What a missing test means
A blank is not a failure
When a certificate does not report purity, purity did not fail — purity was not tested. The failure mode runs both ways: a reader who treats an absence as a failure rejects sound product, and a reader who treats it as a pass believes something nobody claimed. The only correct reading is literal. Pepti's results pages are built that way — each lot renders only the tests actually run, followed by an explicit sentence naming the tests the certificate does not report.
Why sterility is the absence you cannot recover
Every other gap can be closed by asking for another document. Sterility cannot, because it is destructive and time-bound: it is performed on units drawn from a specific batch at a specific point and cannot be reconstructed later from a vial you already hold. That is also why a certificate for a bulk research powder, which typically carries no sterility line at all, is structurally incapable of answering the question that matters for an injection.
For everything else, ask which stage the certificate covers. Bulk substance and finished preparation certificates are different documents, and a legitimate chain has both. Under section 503B of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, each bulk drug substance used in compounding must be "accompanied by a valid certificate of analysis," which FDA reads as meaning each lot of that substance. If the answer to "which laboratory ran it, on which lot" is vague, you have learned the relevant thing.
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
What a COA cannot tell you
| Question | Why a certificate does not answer it |
|---|---|
| Is my vial sterile? | Unless sterility and endotoxin testing are specifically reported, it was not assessed |
| How many milligrams are in my vial? | The certificate usually describes a bulk powder, not your finished container |
| Is this my batch? | Only if the batch number matches your vial, which most posted certificates do not let you check |
| Has it degraded since? | A certificate is a snapshot. Heat and time act afterwards |
| Is the dose right for me? | No document replaces a physician deciding whether a medication is appropriate |
| Is it safe with my medications? | Chemistry says nothing about your history, your conditions or your other prescriptions |
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
The tells of a fabricated certificate
| Tell | Why it gives it away |
|---|---|
| No laboratory name, or only a logo | There is nobody to contact and nothing to verify |
| No chromatogram, only a purity number | The evidence has been removed and the conclusion kept |
| The same batch number across different products | Batch numbers are per batch, not per brand |
| Identical purity to two decimal places across several peptides | Real analyses do not land on the same figure repeatedly |
| Fonts, alignment or shading that shift mid-document | What PDF editing leaves behind |
| A date that never changes as stock turns over | Suggests one document reused indefinitely |
| A chromatogram with no axis labels or scale | An image, not a trace |
| The certificate is a cropped screenshot | Crops remove exactly the header and footer you would check |
The most common tell is simply that the certificate is presented and no vial-level batch number is available to match it against. A certificate you cannot tie to your own product is a document about somebody else's material.
Recycled and orphan certificates
The two hardest cases are the ones that are not forged. A recycled certificate is genuine and stale: one real analysis attached to every subsequent batch indefinitely. It survives scrutiny of its internals and fails only on dates, so check the test date against the batch date rather than against today — a certificate dated before the batch it supposedly covers describes a different batch.
An orphan certificate is genuine but cannot be attached to anything you hold: it carries a lot number and your vial has none, or a different one. The defense is mechanical — read the lot number off your own container first, then look for that lot. This is why Pepti publishes results per lot at a per-lot address rather than as one representative certificate.
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
Who issued it, and why that settles most of it
Reissued certificates, and the seller's letterhead
ICH Q7 addresses the structural loophole. Where a certificate is reissued by a repacker, agent or broker rather than the original manufacturer, it must "show the name, address and telephone number of the laboratory that performed the analysis," plus "a reference to the name and address of the original manufacturer and to the original batch Certificate, a copy of which should be attached." A reseller may pass a certificate along, but must name the laboratory that did the work and attach the original. A reissued document carrying only the reseller's name has removed precisely what the rule exists to preserve.
The same logic condemns the seller's own letterhead. Such a certificate may be accurate; it cannot be verified by you, because the party asserting the result and the party benefiting from it are the same, and no third organization has anything at stake. Independent testing works not because laboratories are virtuous but because they are separate.
How to check the issuer exists
Look the laboratory up independently rather than through a link the seller provides, confirm the address is a facility, and where accreditation is claimed, check the accrediting body's public register rather than the claim. Named individuals matter too: Pepti's Biolink certificates are signed by two named analytical chemists and the Eagle reports by a named quality control manager. A person who can be named can be asked.
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
How Pepti publishes lot data
Pepti publishes the underlying numbers rather than the document, at /quality/lab-results. Every value is transcribed as text, because crawlers, language models and screen readers do not read PDFs, and a number that cannot be read cannot be checked. Where the original signed certificate exists as a file it is linked alongside.
— What is on our reports, and what is not
As published today there are 205 lots across 51 medications, tested between June and September 2026 by three laboratories: Eagle Analytical Services Inc. of Houston, Texas; Biolink Life Sciences Carolinas, Inc. of Cary, North Carolina; and SaphoBio.
Every one of those lots reports potency against label, sterility and bacterial endotoxins, and every one passes. None report purity, identity, pH, particulate matter or container closure integrity, and each entry says so under the results rather than showing an empty cell. The disclaimers travel with the data: where no acceptance range was printed the entry says so, and where the method caveat applies the entry quotes it verbatim.
— A worked example: one BPC-157 lot, line by line
Take the BPC-157 cartridge lot numbered 1633842, tested 2 September 2026 by Eagle Analytical for a Mills Pharmacy preparation described as "BPC-157 3000mcg Injection Solution — CARTRIDGE."
Potency: 105.3% of label — 3159 mcg/mL measured against 3000 mcg/mL label, by USP <621>. Method named, measurement in the label's own units, arithmetic checkable; no acceptance range printed, and the entry says so. Sterility: Pass, by ScanRDI rapid sterility. Endotoxin: < 2 EU/mL, by USP <85>, against a 1500 EU/mL limit. Not reported: identity, purity, pH, particulates, container closure integrity.
So the certificate establishes that a sample of that BPC-157 lot carried approximately the labeled amount of something assaying as BPC-157, showed no microbial growth by a rapid method, and carried endotoxin below the assay's floor. What it does not establish is the sequence, because no identity test was run. Naming the absent tests is what keeps the page from implying a full panel. The molecule is covered at what is BPC-157; the product page is BPC-157.
— A worked example: a lot with a printed range
The GLP-1 lots are stronger in one way: they print the acceptance range. A semaglutide lot numbered 08276F reports potency as "Pass — 107.7% of label (2.154 mg/mL measured vs 2 mg/mL claimed)" against "1.80–2.20 mg/mL (±10% of claimed potency)." Verdict, percentage, measured concentration, claimed concentration and range — nothing left for the reader to supply. Its sterility line names method and validation chapter both, "qPCR rapid sterility, validated per USP <1223>," and its endotoxin line reads "nmt 4 EU/mL" against "NMT 350 EU/mL," with the note carrying the laboratory's spike recovery figure — the control showing the assay was not inhibited by the sample matrix.
The tirzepatide lots follow the same pattern across the dose ladder, the specification scaling with claimed strength: 4.50–5.50 mg/mL at the 2.5 mg strength, 27.00–33.00 mg/mL at the 15 mg strength. That is the clearest illustration of what a specification is — one ±10% rule re-expressed in absolute units for each preparation. Both have their own pages, semaglutide and tirzepatide.
— When the name on the certificate is not the name on the box
A certificate can be genuine and still appear not to match your product, because pharmacies sometimes label a formulation with their own internal name. Twelve of Pepti's blends are like this — the certificate reads COGNITION, IMMUNITY, BUILD or CLARITY where the box says ELEVATE, FORTIFY, ASCEND or SYNAPSE. They are matched by composition, never by name, and every affected entry states the name printed on the certificate so a reader holding the PDF can follow it. A name difference that is explained and cross-referenced is administrative; one silently glossed over is not.
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
Where this sits with the FDA right now
FDA states it directly: "Compounded drugs are not FDA-approved. This means that FDA does not verify the safety, effectiveness or quality of compounded drugs before they are marketed." No certificate changes that. A COA is a record of measurement; approval is a regulatory determination about a finished drug product made on a different body of evidence.
503A, 503B, and who checks the paperwork
FDA describes section 503A as setting "the conditions under which compounded human drug products are exempt from the FD&C Act sections on FDA approval prior to marketing, current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) requirements, and labeling with adequate directions for use," one condition being "the receipt of valid patient-specific prescriptions"; section 503B created the outsourcing facility category, and those facilities "are subject to CGMP requirements." Drugs compounded under 503A, FDA adds elsewhere, are not.
That is why a patient-specific compounded prescription is overseen primarily by a state board of pharmacy rather than federal pre-market review, and why published per-lot release testing is worth doing where it is not federally required. The framework in full is in what is a 503A compounding pharmacy. FDA separately maintains categorized lists of bulk drug substances nominated for 503A compounding, where Category 2 covers substances for which FDA "has identified significant safety risks relating to the use of these substances in compounding pending further evaluation." That categorization is about the substance, not about any individual lot.
Meeting a USP chapter is not the same as meeting CGMP
In its draft guidance on visible particulates in injectable products, FDA "clarifies that meeting an applicable United States Pharmacopeia (USP) compendial standard alone is not generally sufficient for meeting the current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) requirements for the manufacture of injectable products." A compendial chapter is a test method and an acceptance criterion; a quality system is what makes the tested sample representative of the batch and determines what happens when a result does not conform. A certificate is an output of the second thing, which is why the accountability of the organization behind it is not a formality.
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
Why a prescription changes the question
With a compounded prescription you are not evaluating a PDF from a seller with no obligation to you. A licensed pharmacy works from active ingredients supplied against certificates of analysis, compounds to a physician's prescription under compendial standards for sterile preparation, and is accountable to a state board of pharmacy and to FDA registration. The record exists whether or not you ask for it, and there is somebody answerable if something is wrong.
That is a different structure from a seller who chose to publish a certificate and could equally choose not to. The regulatory framework behind it is in what is a 503A compounding pharmacy, and what your own vial label should carry is in how to store peptides. Compounded medications are not FDA approved, and a certificate does not change that.
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
What the evidence shows, honestly
Independent analyses of grey-market peptide products have repeatedly found vials that were underdosed, overdosed, mislabelled or contaminated, including with bacterial endotoxin and heavy metals. Those findings are the reason the certificate question is asked at all. There is no ongoing surveillance programme covering this market, so nobody can tell you what proportion of it fails, only that failures keep being documented and that nothing in the supply chain is designed to catch them.
Two honest limits on this page. First, a genuine certificate from a real laboratory is meaningful evidence about the material tested, and it is not evidence about your vial unless the batch matches. Second, chemistry is the easier half of the problem. Identity and purity can be measured. Whether a preparation is sterile, whether it holds the stated concentration in your container, and whether it is appropriate for you are separate questions that a certificate was never designed to answer.
If a molecule matters enough to inject, it matters enough to know who made it, under which licence, and who is answerable for it. The full comparison is in research peptides vs prescription peptides.
— How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One)
The two-minute checklist
- Whose name is at the top? A laboratory, with an address, that is not the seller.
- Does the lot number match your vial? Read your own label first. No match, no relevance.
- Is the test date after the batch date and recent relative to your stock? A date that never moves is a recycled document.
- Does every line carry a spec, a result and a method? No specification means no verdict; no method means no basis.
- Is there a sterility line and an endotoxin line? Neither can be inferred from purity.
- What is absent? Read absences as absences — not passes, not failures.
- Is there a signature and a named person? Someone who can be asked.
— References
What this is based on.
References
- Chang CH, Tsai WC, Hsu YH, Pang JH. Pentadecapeptide BPC 157 enhances the growth hormone receptor expression in tendon fibroblasts · Molecules (2014) · PMID 25415472
- Krivic A, Anic T, Seiwerth S, et al.. Achilles detachment of rat and stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157 · Journal of Orthopaedic Research (2006) · PMID 16583442
- Sikiric P, Seiwerth S, Rucman R, et al.. Stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157: novel therapy in gastrointestinal tract · Current Pharmaceutical Design (2011) · PMID 21548867
- Cerovecki T, Bojanic I, Brcic L, Radic B, et al.. Pentadecapeptide BPC 157 (PL 14736) improves ligament healing in the rat · J Orthop Res (2010) · PMID 20225319
- Sikiric P, Seiwerth S, Rucman R, Turkovic B, et al.. Stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157-NO-system relation · Curr Pharm Des (2014) · PMID 23755725
- Cox HD, Miller GD, Eichner D. Detection and in vitro metabolism of the confiscated peptides BPC 157 and MGF R23H · Drug Test Anal (2017) · PMID 28035768
- Thomas A, Görgens C, Guddat S et al.. Simplifying and expanding the screening for peptides <2 kDa by direct urine injection, liquid chromatography, and ion mobility mass spectrometry · J Sep Sci (2016) · PMID 26578461
- Farrar JT, Young JP Jr, LaMoreaux L, Werth JL et al.. Clinical importance of changes in chronic pain intensity measured on an 11-point numerical pain rating scale · Pain (2001) · PMID 11690728
- Meyer JD, Ho B, Manning MC. Effects of conformation on the chemical stability of pharmaceutically relevant polypeptides · Pharm Biotechnol (2002) · PMID 11987755
- Xu C, Sun L, Ren F, Huang P, et al.. Preclinical Safety Evaluation of Body Protective Compound-157, a Potential Drug for Treating Various Wounds · Regul Toxicol Pharmacol (2020) · PMID 32334036
- He L, Feng D, Guo H, et al.. Pharmacokinetics, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of body-protective compound 157, a potential drug for treating various wounds, in rats and dogs · Front Pharmacol (2022) · PMID 36588717
- Lee E, Padgett B. Intra-Articular Injection of BPC 157 for Multiple Types of Knee Pain · Altern Ther Health Med (2021) · PMID 34324435
Citations are provided for educational purposes. They do not constitute medical advice. Always discuss any peptide protocol with your prescribing physician.
— Common questions
How to Read a Peptide Certificate of Analysis (and Spot a Fake One), answered.
That a sample of one batch, tested on one date, showed a given identity and purity by the stated methods. It proves nothing about your vial unless the batch numbers match, and it says nothing about sterility unless sterility testing is specifically reported.
It is a reasonable figure for a research-grade peptide and it is also not the whole picture. Ask what the remaining percent is, whether the chromatogram is shown, and what the net peptide content is, since purity and peptide content are different numbers.
Easily, and fabricated ones circulate widely. The common tells are no named laboratory, no chromatogram, a batch number that appears across every product, and editing artefacts in fonts or alignment. Two subtler forms are the recycled certificate, genuine but attached to batches it never covered, and the orphan certificate, genuine but impossible to tie to any lot number on your container.
No. Purity is not sterility, and neither is endotoxin testing. Those are separate analyses that most posted certificates do not include, and they are the ones that matter for an injectable.
Lab documentation is published where it exists, and the sourcing chain is set out on the quality page. The more useful answer for a patient is that a licensed pharmacy compounded your prescription and is accountable for it, which a certificate from a seller is not a substitute for. The per-lot data is at /quality/lab-results.
Ask, and then ask the follow-up questions: which laboratory, which batch, does it match the vial you will ship me, and was sterility tested. The follow-ups are what separate a real document from a marketing asset.
A certificate describes chemistry. A prescription means a physician licensed in your state reviewed your history, your medications and your contraindications and decided the medication is appropriate. Those are different problems, and only one of them can be solved by a PDF.
Potency is how much active ingredient is present relative to the label. Purity is what share of the detected chromatographic profile is the main peak. A preparation can assay at 100% of label and still contain impurities, and it can be highly pure and underfilled. A complete picture wants both — purity from the bulk substance certificate, potency from the finished preparation.
That the assay could not quantify below 2 endotoxin units per milliliter and the sample fell under that floor. It does not mean zero. Read it against the limit printed beside it: on Pepti's published lots those limits are 350, 700 or 1500 EU/mL depending on the preparation.
Because the limit is calculated from how much of the product a patient could receive and by which route, not from concentration alone. FDA makes the same point in its compounding guidance. Comparing raw EU/mL figures across two different medications therefore tells you nothing.
It is a verdict without a margin. A pass tells you the result fell inside the specification; a number tells you where inside. A potency of 110.0% against a 90–110% window is a pass, and so is 99.4%, and only the numbers let you tell them apart.
That the test was not run on that lot — not that it failed, and not that it passed. Pepti's results pages state this per lot: each entry lists the tests actually performed, then names the tests the certificate does not report.
The laboratory that performed the analysis, with the manufacturer's quality unit signing it. Where a repacker, agent or broker reissues one, the international standard for active pharmaceutical ingredients requires it to name the laboratory that did the testing and attach a copy of the original batch certificate.
No, and the two are unrelated. FDA states that compounded drugs are not FDA-approved and that it does not verify their safety, effectiveness or quality before marketing. A certificate is a measurement record; approval is a regulatory determination about a finished drug product.
A release certificate covers the batch at release; it is not retested on a schedule. What happens afterwards is governed by the beyond-use date and the storage conditions on the label, which is why how to store peptides is the practical companion to this page. If stock has turned over and the certificate you are shown has not, you are looking at a document for a batch that no longer exists. The free assessment goes to a physician licensed in your state. A consultation does not guarantee a prescription.
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A licensed physician in your state reviews your intake and decides what is appropriate. A consultation does not guarantee a prescription.
Important legal & safety information
The assessment process available on the Pepti website asks a series of medical questions, and the answers provided are reviewed by an independent licensed physician affiliated with our partner physician network. The licensed providers have established exclusionary criteria, and the answers provided determine if the individual is screened out of eligibility for treatment. The licensed clinicians retain the sole decision to prescribe peptide therapy and other compounded medications to patients. Treatment may be denied at the physician's sole discretion. If a prescription is not approved, you will not be charged for the medication.
Pharmacy Providers. Pepti is a technology platform and is not a healthcare provider, pharmacy, or prescriber. All medications offered through the platform are compounded by independent FDA-registered 503A or 503B compounding pharmacies based on a valid prescription written by a licensed physician for an individual patient. Compounded medications are not FDA-approved as products. The active pharmaceutical ingredients used by our partner pharmacies are sourced from FDA-registered facilities. Compounded medications may not undergo the same testing or quality control as commercially manufactured FDA-approved drugs.
Results vary. Results from peptide therapy and other compounded treatments vary based on individual factors, including age, weight, medical history, adherence to the prescribed protocol, lifestyle factors, and physiological response. Pepti makes no guarantee of any specific outcome. Statements about peptide therapy and compounded medications offered through the platform have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Product images. Product photographs and renderings shown on this website are for illustrative purposes only. The appearance of vials, packaging, labeling, and other materials you receive may vary and is determined by the dispensing compounding pharmacy.
Off-label use.Many peptides offered through the platform are prescribed for off-label use. “Off-label” means the medication is being prescribed for a use, dose, or patient population that is not specifically approved by the FDA. Off-label prescribing is legal and common in U.S. medical practice when supported by clinical experience and judgment.
Mailing & shipping. Pepti currently dispenses prescription medication to patients in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.. All orders ship in unbranded, tamper-evident packaging via expedited delivery from our partner compounding pharmacies. Temperature-sensitive medications ship with insulated packaging and ice packs. Shipping is included at no additional cost. We do not currently ship medication outside all 50 states and Washington, D.C., internationally, or to APO/FPO addresses.
Not for emergencies. Pepti is not designed for medical emergencies. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room immediately. For urgent but non-emergency medical questions, contact your primary care provider or use an urgent care service.
No doctor-patient relationship with Pepti. Your use of the platform does not create a doctor-patient relationship between you and pepti LLC. A doctor-patient relationship is established only between you and the independent licensed physician who reviews your intake and prescribes your treatment. The physicians who use the platform are independent contractors and are solely responsible for the medical care they provide.
Prescription medications. All prescription products require a valid prescription from a licensed healthcare provider. By using the platform, you acknowledge that you are at least 18 years old and that the information you provide is true, accurate, current, and complete. Providing false information may result in inappropriate treatment recommendations or denial of service.
Cosmetic & wellness products.Certain products offered through Pepti — including skincare, hair care, body care, supplements, men's grooming, sports recovery, and sexual wellness products — are cosmetic or dietary supplement products, not prescription medications. These products do not require a prescription and are not reviewed or prescribed by a physician. Statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Results vary by individual. Consult your healthcare provider before starting any new supplement or topical product, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking other medications.
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