Two Conferences, One Question: Can You Prove What’s in the Vial?

Talk to us about testing.

Meeting on the Hill

Compounders on Capitol Hill (September 14–16) is the yearly advocacy event run by the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding (APC). About 300 pharmacy owners and staff flew in to meet with members of Congress, as well as share the learnings from growing momentum across the industry. Two members of our team, our CEO, Abraham Chaibi and Head of Growth, Pavel Ryzhov, PhD attended CCH.

Testing Is Slow, Manual, and Expensive

We met owners of single 503A pharmacies, networks running many locations, veterinary compounders, and outsourcing facilities. Almost all of them described the same problem. Analytical testing for compounded drugs is slow, manual, and expensive. Samples wait in queues, results get copied by hand from instruments into reports, and labs limit how many stability studies they’ll take on. Pharmacies pay for all of it in cost and in time.

Hearing this again and again confirmed why we started Sapho Bio. We’re building an automation-first QC lab. That means robotic sample prep, instruments connected directly to reporting, and full traceability from the moment a sample arrives to the final certificate. You can read more on our lab automation page.

Stability studies matter because they’re what backs up a longer beyond-use date. We explain how ours work in our post on stability studies. Rapid sterility testing came up again and again as well. Some pharmacies in California say they’ve been told to stick to the standard USP <71> method. A faster method only helps if inspectors accept it.

Six Peptides, and a Harder Question

Two days later we went to Georgetown for PepMed 2026 (September 17–18), the Regenerative Health World Congress run by the American Academy of Peptide Medicine. Around 300 physicians, pharmacists, manufacturers, researchers, and policymakers attended. Speakers included Rep. Diana Harshbarger, who is a licensed pharmacist, and Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brian Christine, M.D.

The meeting took place two months after the FDA’s Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee voted on seven peptides for the 503A Bulks List. It recommended six: BPC-157, KPV, TB-500, MOTS-c, Epitalon, and Semax. It voted against emideltide (DSIP). The recommendations are non-binding. The FDA can still accept, change, or reject them during rulemaking, so none of the seven can be compounded under 503A yet. We cover the votes and what comes next in our PCAC breakdown.

The committee’s biggest concern was characterization. These peptides have no USP/NF monographs, their names aren’t used consistently, and data on impurities and endotoxins is incomplete. Whichever peptides make the list, pharmacies will need to prove identity, potency, and purity.

Potency Is Only as Good as the Reference Standard

Potency drew more interest than any other topic. Pharmacists, physicians, and manufacturers kept coming back to it, and many told us how important it is to get it right. A potency result is only as reliable as the reference standard behind it.

That’s why we work to source the highest-quality reference standards available for every peptide we test. We explain our approach in How Sapho Bio Tests for Peptide Potency.

Women’s Health Is Getting Lost in the GLP-1 Story

GLP-1s dominate the headlines about compounding, but they aren’t the whole story. A big part of the growth we see is in women’s health. That includes hormone therapy, menopause and perimenopause care, and a growing interest in peptides for conditions that conventional medicine has long underserved.

We see this in our own work. It’s one of the reasons we went to these conferences. PepMed gave women’s health its own sessions. At both events we met pharmacies built around women’s hormone care, and some of their leaders serve on APC’s board. Earlier this year we spoke at a Peptides for Women event in San Francisco. The questions we heard there were about safety, drug interactions, reproductive health, and whether a product had been tested.

Many of these patients are researching peptides on their own. They are asking good questions, and they deserve answers backed by data.

The Audience Is Bigger Than the Pharmacy

At both conferences, people pushed us to think past the pharmacy. A patient advocate at CCH said patients shopping for GLP-1s want to see testing information. Physicians at PepMed told us results should speak to prescribers and patients, not just pharmacists. When a result can be shared, it builds trust along the whole chain, from the lab to the patient.

Talk to us about testing if you’d like to compare notes on how testing works at your pharmacy and where it falls short.

Thank you to APC and AAPM for hosting, and to everyone who stopped to talk with us. See you at the Compounding Pharmacy Owners Summit in March.