Purity Guarantee and Independent Testing

You do not have to take our analysis on trust. Every compound we sell can be independently tested, and if it fails specification we refund it in full — including what the test cost you.

The guarantee

If you have a compound independently analysed and the results show it fails the specification stated on its certificate of analysis, we issue a full refund including your testing fees, provided unused product is returned with the supporting documentation.

We are not aware of many suppliers in this category who will reimburse the cost of testing them. We offer it because published certificates are only worth something if they are falsifiable.

How our certificates work

Certificates of analysis are published on this website. They are not shipped inside the box.

Vials are matched to their certificate by cap and crimp colour, checked against the photographs shown on the certificate itself — the vials do not carry printed batch numbers.

Our certificates report third-party testing by HPLC and/or mass spectrometry where applicable, and state which methods were applied to a given batch.

If you want to test independently

Any analytical laboratory offering peptide characterisation can do this. Two points are worth knowing before you compare results.

A purity figure is method-dependent. Detection wavelength, gradient steepness and integration choices all move the number, so a difference between two laboratories does not by itself indicate a problem — our note on why two certificates can disagree explains where the variation comes from.

Identity and purity are separate questions. A mass spectrum establishes that the main peak is the intended sequence; a purity percentage only establishes homogeneity. See HPLC and mass spectrometry verification.

Damaged or defective shipments

Damaged or defective items must be reported within 7 days of receipt. Replacements or refunds are provided at our discretion. Inspecting a shipment on arrival rather than at the point of use is what keeps you inside that window — see what to check on arrival.

What “lab tested” should mean from a Canadian supplier

The phrase is close to meaningless on its own. Every supplier in this category says it. What separates a claim you can act on from one you cannot comes down to five specifics, and any supplier in Canada should be able to answer all five without hesitation.

• Who ran the test. An in-house instrument and an independent analytical laboratory are different assurances. Both are legitimate; conflating them is not. A certificate should say which.
• Which batch it describes. A certificate that cannot be tied to the vial in your hand is decoration. There has to be a mechanism — a printed lot code, or in our case cap and crimp colour matched against photographs on the certificate itself.
• Which methods were applied. RP-HPLC for purity and mass spectrometry for identity answer different questions. A purity figure with no identity confirmation tells you the material is clean without telling you what it is.
• The conditions behind the number. A purity percentage without the gradient, column and detection wavelength is not reproducible, and closely eluting impurities can hide under a shallow gradient.
• Whether it is falsifiable. The one that matters most. If a supplier will not stand behind the certificate when an independent laboratory disagrees with it, the certificate is marketing.

That last point is why this guarantee exists in the form it does. Publishing certificates costs nothing if there is no consequence for publishing an optimistic one.

Buying research peptides in Canada: what actually differs

Sourcing domestically rather than importing changes several practical things, and not always the ones people expect.

• Customs. A domestic order does not cross a border, so there is no CBSA clearance step, no importer-of-record question and no possibility of a shipment being held or refused entry. Importing research chemicals into Canada is covered separately in importing versus domestic sourcing.
• Transit time and temperature. Shorter transit means less time at ambient temperature. Lyophilised peptides are reasonably robust, but weeks in a warehouse is a different exposure from days in transit.
• Currency and duties. Prices in Canadian dollars, with no exchange spread and no brokerage fees appearing after the fact.
• Recourse. A domestic supplier is reachable, and a guarantee is enforceable in a way that one from an offshore reseller generally is not.
• Regulatory framing. Material supplied within Canada for laboratory research use sits under the Food and Drugs Act framework described in regulatory status of research peptides in Canada. It carries no DIN or NPN, is not a natural health product, and is not authorised for human or veterinary use.

How to verify a certificate of analysis yourself

Reading a COA properly takes about two minutes and rules out most of what goes wrong.

• Check identity first, then purity. Mass confirmation against the calculated mass establishes what the compound is. Purity is only meaningful once identity is settled.
• Read the chromatogram, not just the number. A single sharp main peak with a flat baseline supports the stated figure. A cluster of unresolved shoulders under one integration does not. There is a walkthrough in reading an HPLC chromatogram.
• Look for net peptide content. Lyophilised material carries counterions and residual water, so gross vial mass overstates peptide mass, commonly by fifteen to twenty-five percent. Without this figure you cannot calculate a concentration accurately. See net peptide content explained.
• Check the counterion. Trifluoroacetate carried over from purification has its own activity in some cell assays. Counterions and salt form covers the implications.
• Note what is absent. Endotoxin and sterility are not established by HPLC and MS, and a certificate that does not report them has not tested for them. What the terms actually mean is in endotoxin and sterility.

Why two laboratories can disagree about the same vial

This is the most common reason a customer thinks a certificate is wrong when it is not. Purity by RP-HPLC is an area-percent measurement, and it moves with the method.

• Gradient slope. A steeper gradient compresses the run and can bury deletion sequences under the main peak. A shallower one resolves them and reports a lower number for the same material.
• Detection wavelength. 214 nm sees the peptide bond and detects nearly everything; 280 nm sees aromatic residues only. The same sample gives different area percentages at each.
• Column chemistry and age. Different stationary phases resolve different impurity pairs, and an aged column loses efficiency.
• Integration parameters. Where the analyst sets the baseline and the peak-splitting threshold changes the result, sometimes by more than a percentage point.

None of this makes the measurement unreliable — it makes it method-dependent, which is why conditions belong on the certificate. The full explanation is in why certificates of analysis disagree on purity and third-party versus in-house testing.

What we do not claim

Being explicit about the boundaries is part of the guarantee being worth anything.

• We do not hold a Drug Identification Number or a Natural Product Number, and nothing supplied here is a drug, a natural health product, a cosmetic or a medical device.
• We do not manufacture to GMP, and we do not represent that we do.
• We do not assure sterility or endotoxin limits unless a specific batch certificate states that those tests were performed.
• We do not provide dosing, administration or protocol guidance in any channel, and we will not do so on request.
• Material is supplied for laboratory research use only, and not for human consumption, clinical, veterinary, cosmetic or household use.

Choosing between suppliers

If you are comparing a Canadian supplier against another, the questions worth asking are narrow: are certificates published openly or sent on request; can a vial be matched to its certificate; are the analytical conditions stated; is third-party testing distinguished from in-house; is there a stated consequence if independent analysis disagrees; and is the price comparable on a per-milligram net-peptide basis rather than per vial. The last one catches a surprising amount — see comparing prices per milligram and choosing a research peptide supplier in Canada.

Published certificates for current batches are at certificates of analysis.

What this does not cover

Standard analysis covers identity and purity. It does not cover endotoxin, sterility or residual solvents unless those tests were specifically run — see the limits of “research grade”. If your work has an immune or inflammatory readout, ask before ordering.

The full terms are set out in our terms and conditions.

All compounds are supplied for laboratory research use only, and not for human or veterinary use.