Why is it important to inspect and verify COAs?

Before purchasing and using any research peptide, it’s crucial to inspect the COA. Inspecting the COA will confirm the following:

 

• • Testing Practices: Any reputable vendor of research peptides MUST get their products independently tested by a third-party laboratory. The vendor should be clearly labeled on the COA as the supplier. If they are not listed on the COA, DO NOT BUY. They are likely reusing a COA provided by an overseas manufacturer or pulling ones from other vendors and claiming as their own – I’ve seen it before

• • Accuracy: The COA will/should clearly identify the exact peptide within the vial, confirming you are buying what you intend to buy. Additionally, the COA will confirm exactly how much of the peptide is in the vial. Underfilling/overfilling vials is very common occurrence during the manufacturing process and cannot be directly controlled by the vendor. I have seen drastic differences in what’s on the label vs. what is in the vial (see FelixChem example below). Dosing should be calculated based off the peptide amount on the COA, not the vendor’s label.

• • Purity: Last but not least, the COA will clearly state the purity of the peptide within the vial. Anything >98% is the standard target but most vendors take this a step further and only sell peptides are >99%.

• • Batch #: While not completely required, a COA should include a batch number. This helps hold vendors accountable that the COA is specific for the vial you purchased. Unfortunately, there is no guaranteed way to ensure vendors are accurately labeling their batches and not performing some sort of bait and switch. As a best practice, vials should be labeled with a batch number, and the batch number should be traceable to its respective COA.

• • Date: COAs will include the date of testing. Lyophilized peptides can be good for several years under the right conditions, but I avoid vendors that have very dated COAs, as this does not give me confidence that they are routinely testing their batches.

Examples of COAs from different third-party labs and how to verify:

Let’s use some examples from some of my partner vendors to show some of their results and provide you with the necessary steps to verify the results with the lab itself:

Peptira – Testing through Janoshik Analytical
Janoshik is commonly considered the gold standard when it comes to lab testing. One thing Peptira does well is they put links from their products directly to the Janoshik website, eliminating the need to independently verify them, however, for exercise purposes, we will pretend they don’t. Here is a COA for their Retatrutide 30mg:

To save space, I won’t post the COA again, but I have confirmed it agrees to the one above with no exceptions. See for yourself at Janoshik Analytical results.

FelixChem – Testing through Chromate
Chromate is another popular independent laboratory when it comes to testing. We will inspect the COA for AOD-9604, as this one is a perfect real-life example on why inspecting the COAs to verify your purchase is crucial. This vial of AOD-9604 has over 90% more peptide in the vial than advertised. While I would be excited if I saw this (yay free bonus), this can be potentially dangerous if you don’t check.

Now that we have our necessary information, head over to Chromate | Analytical Services and enter the “Job Number” (this is the COA # from above) and the Access Code. I won’t post the results, but I have confirmed that they agree with no exceptions.

Alpha Omega Peptide – Testing through Freedom Diagnostics
Freedom Diagnostics isn’t as popular as the other testing laboratories, but I have been seeing it more and more. They have greatly improved their COAs over the last couple months. Previously, they didn’t include the peptide amount but have since resolved this issue. Let’s breakdown this COA for Tirzepatide 20mg:

Now that we have what we need to independently verify, let’s head over to Search for your COA based on the unique accession number. – Freedom Diagnostics Testing and enter in the Search Code. Same as before, the COA matches the one I pulled directly from Alpha’s site with no exceptions.

Treasure Coast Peptides – Testing through Forever Young Pharmacy (they also use Janoshik, but I wanted another example to show)
Forever Young Pharmacy is another relatively newer laboratory that I am seeing more and more from peptide vendors. The information included on the COA is robust (they include pH levels, which is nice!) and very organized, however, they do not have an on-demand way of verifying the COA in real time. Instead, you must submit a request to verify, which requires some additional steps and inputs. This is still recommended as you are evaluating vendors. Here is an example of a COA for NAD:

Based on the conclusion above, I am unable to verify the COA at the time of writing this blog. However, I have submitted a request via their website on Saturday 8/2/2025 and will update once I receive the results.

UPDATE: Forever Young Pharmacy notified me that they have never tested their products, and they were fraudulently editing COAs from another peptide company.  I have immediately cut all ties from the company, removed them from the site, and personally reimbursed a few orders from my customers that ordered affected items out of my own pocket.  

If you’re looking for research peptides and want to support our community, please check out our partner vendors inventory at prosigmasolutions.com/peptides.