Sourcing in the UK
Research-use status, domestic stock versus import, and what to require of a supplier.
Every product in this sector carries the phrase research use only, and that phrase is widely misread. It is a statement about regulatory status - that the material has not been manufactured, tested or licensed as a medicine - rather than a claim about analytical quality. A research-grade peptide can be of very high purity and still carry the designation, because the designation concerns licensing rather than chemistry.
It also tells you nothing about the legal status of any specific compound, because the compounds in this sector do not share one status. Some are licensed medicines, some are controlled substances, some are neither. The label reads identically across all of them.
This section covers what the designation actually signifies, why domestic stock changes the practical picture independently of any compound's status, and the six questions that separate a supplier who can substantiate a batch from one who cannot.