Research Methodology

How a compound profile is researched

Every profile follows the same sequence, in this order:

1. Regulatory position first. Drugs@FDA for approval status and indications; the prescribing information where an approval exists; FDA's compounding lists and any relevant safety communications. This comes first because it constrains everything else that can honestly be said.
2. Trial registry. ClinicalTrials.gov, searched under both the compound name and any development code. We record what exists, its status, its phase, its enrolment and its primary outcome measure — and note when nothing exists.
3. Published literature. Human trials first, then animal work, then in vitro. For each study we record design, population, subject count, findings and limitations, in that fixed structure.
4. Evidence grading. Each research area is graded separately against the published criteria.
5. Citation verification. Every reference is checked against its primary source. Anything unverified is flagged on the page, and flagged pages are excluded from search engine indexing until verification is complete.

What counts as a source

In descending order of weight:

• FDA documents — labels, approval letters, guidance, advisory committee materials
• Trial registrations and posted results
• Peer-reviewed randomised controlled trials
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses
• Other peer-reviewed research, weighted by design
• Government and academic institutional publications

Sponsor press releases are used only when they are the sole available source for a result, and they are labelled as such in the reference list with a note that peer review has not occurred.

Not used as sources: vendor product pages, consumer forums, social media, AI-generated summaries, or other affiliate sites.

How study quality is assessed

Each study is assessed on:

• Species. Human evidence and animal evidence are never presented in the same register.
• Control and randomisation. Uncontrolled and non-randomised designs are identified as such.
• Endpoint type. Surrogate endpoints are distinguished from clinical endpoints explicitly.
• Pre-specification. Whether the reported result was the trial's declared primary endpoint.
• Power and duration. Whether the study was large enough and long enough to answer the question asked.
• Independence. Whether the work has been replicated by groups unaffiliated with the originators.

What we do not claim

Peptide Insider does not conduct laboratory testing, and does not claim to. We have not independently assayed any product for identity, purity, potency or sterility. If we ever commission testing, we will publish the methodology, the laboratory, the batch identifiers and the full results — and until that happens, no page on this site will imply otherwise.