Why a result on one vial says less than the trade needs it to
Chain of custody, in a regulated setting, begins at sampling. Here it begins when the package arrives.
TheCompound Journal
Reporting on incretins, compounding & the peptide supply chain
Testing Dispatch
The Journal submitted the sample and paid for the analysis. The vendor was told in advance.
Janoshik has published a purity determination of 98.5% on a 30 mg vial of tirzepatide supplied by JEEP, against a figure of 96.0% on the certificate that accompanied the vial. The sample was submitted by the Journal in February 2026 as part of a continuing programme of arm’s-length purchasing, and the vendor was told before the order was placed that any result would be published.
Content by elemental nitrogen determination returned 91% of the labelled nominal mass, which on a 30 mg vial corresponds to roughly 5.25 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.
Reported figures across the set were: highest 98.5%, lowest 96.0%, median close to the midpoint of the two. Every report in the set stated a detection wavelength, and 21 of them stated an integration threshold. The Journal has asked the laboratory to publish thresholds on all reports as a matter of routine.
Four independent services — Janoshik, Medutest, and the two others operating in this market — carry the analytical burden for a trade that has no release-testing obligation of its own. Each is paid by whoever submits the sample, which is usually the vendor. The Journal’s position is that a submitter-pays model is workable but that its incentive structure has to be stated whenever a result is quoted as verification.
"The figure is not wrong and neither is theirs," said Rowena Ashcombe, community pharmacist and diabetes educator. "They are answers to two different questions and the trade has decided to pretend there is only one question. Print the gradient and the argument disappears."
JEEP’s dossier has been updated with this determination and with the date of the request for comment. The dossier’s "what we could not verify" box records the questions still outstanding.
Chain of custody, in a regulated setting, begins at sampling. Here it begins when the package arrives.
The report states the gradient, the wavelength and the integration threshold, which is more than most.
The Journal submitted the sample and paid for the analysis. The vendor was told in advance.
Reported from the analysis, not from a warning notice.
The supplier has not disputed the finding. It has not explained the gap either.
The report states the gradient, the wavelength and the integration threshold, which is more than most.