Research use only

The designation

“Research use only” marks a compound as intended for laboratory investigation rather than clinical or consumer use. It means the compound has not gone through the approval process required of a therapeutic, has no approved indication, and carries no established safety profile for use in people.

What it is not

The designation is not a formality or a legal workaround, and it is not a signal that a compound is approved-but-unlabelled. Many compounds catalogued here have promising preclinical literature and no human safety data whatsoever. Some have never been administered to a human under any protocol. Others failed clinical development.

What we ask

• Treat every compound here as an unapproved research chemical, because that is what it is.
• Read the primary literature rather than the summary. Every entry links its sources directly.
• Distinguish preclinical from clinical evidence. Most of what exists in this field is the former.
• Verify supplier claims independently. A certificate of analysis is only meaningful if you can confirm it with the laboratory that issued it.
• Comply with the law where you are. It varies considerably and it changes.

Product codes

Certain incretin-class compounds are listed under research-use designations rather than pharmaceutical brand names, a convention used broadly across this market. The code and the compound it refers to are both published on each entry, because the point is clarity about what something is, not obscurity.