Vol. 3, No. 6 — June 2026Independent since 2024

TheCompound Journal

Reporting on incretins, compounding & the peptide supply chain

A monthly journal of record.
30 issues · 32 contributors
Not medical advice. We sell nothing.

Testing Dispatch

PeptideMeter result on a Tianjin semaglutide lot lands 1.1 points above the supplier’s stated figure

The Journal submitted the sample and paid for the analysis. The vendor was told in advance.

An independent purity determination on semaglutide material sold by TFC has returned 96.5%, a figure 1.1 percentage points above the number printed on the accompanying certificate, which the supplier had reported against a shorter gradient and a tighter threshold. The analysis was performed by PeptideMeter on a vial the Journal bought as an ordinary retail customer in February 2025 and posted unopened.

Content by elemental nitrogen determination returned 99% of the labelled nominal mass, which on a 15 mg vial corresponds to roughly 14.17 mg of peptide rather than the labelled figure. The remainder is accounted for by counter-ion, residual water and residual solvent, none of which is visible chromatographically.

Content by elemental nitrogen determination returned 99% of the labelled nominal mass, which on a 15 mg vial corresponds to roughly 14.17 mg of peptide rather than the labelled figure. The remainder is accounted for by counter-ion, residual water and residual solvent, none of which is visible chromatographically.

Batch variance rather than vendor quality is the recurring finding of this programme. Across the 17 determinations the Journal has commissioned to date, within-vendor spread has been wider than between-vendor spread for two thirds of the companies tracked, which is an argument against rating any supplier on a single number.

"Content is the number that matters if you are doing arithmetic with a vial, and content is the number nobody sells," said Lorcan Feeney, analytical services director at an independent laboratory. "Purity is what you can afford. Content is what you need."

TFC’s dossier has been updated with this determination and with the company’s response to it. The dossier’s ordering box records the lead times, the minimum quantities and what a buyer should ask for at the point of order.

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