Storage & aseptic handling

01 When the parcel arrives

Open it the day it lands, even if you do not intend to use the material for weeks. The point is to catch a problem inside the 48-hour window in which it can still be claimed.

Check the vials against the packing list, confirm each seal is intact and the stopper has not shifted, and read the batch number on the label. That number is what ties the vial to its Certificate of Analysis, and it is the first thing we will ask you for.

A parcel that arrives at room temperature is not a spoiled parcel. Lyophilised peptides are stable at ambient temperature for the length of a normal transit; the cold chain is a margin of safety. What matters is getting the vials into proper storage once they are with you.

Photograph anything that looks wrong before you unpack further — a cracked vial, a lifted stopper, a discoloured cake. A claim without photographs of the packaging as it arrived is very hard to resolve.

02 Storage temperatures

Two different materials with two different requirements: the dry powder, and whatever you turn it into.

Lyophilised, long term

-20 °C or colder. Months to years depending on the compound.

Lyophilised, in use

2–8 °C. Convenient for a vial you expect to reconstitute within a few weeks.

Lyophilised, in transit

Ambient is tolerated for the length of normal shipping. Not a storage condition.

Reconstituted

2–8 °C, protected from light, for the window stated on the product page.

Aliquoted and frozen

-20 °C or colder, single use per aliquot. The only sound way to freeze a solution.

03 Freeze–thaw and aliquoting

Every freeze–thaw cycle damages peptide in solution. Ice crystals form, the remaining liquid concentrates at the freezing front, and the pH shifts with it — all of which drive aggregation and hydrolysis. Two or three cycles are measurable; ten will materially degrade a preparation.

If a reconstituted vial will not be consumed within its refrigerated window, split it into single-use aliquots in sterile tubes at the moment of reconstitution and freeze those. Each aliquot thaws once and is discarded, so the material never sees a second cycle.

Thaw aliquots in the refrigerator or in your hand, not in warm water and never in a microwave. Let them reach temperature before opening, so condensation forms on the outside of the tube rather than inside it.

04 Aseptic technique

Contamination in practice comes from surfaces and from hands, far more often than from the air. Technique is mostly about not touching things.

• Work on a disinfected surface in still air. Close windows and turn off fans; a draught moves particulates onto your work.
• Wash hands and wear clean gloves. Disinfect gloved hands with 70% isopropyl alcohol as you would bare ones.
• Swab every stopper before every entry — not just the first one — and let the alcohol evaporate before piercing it.
• Never touch the needle, the syringe tip or the plunger shaft. Handle a syringe by its barrel and a needle by its hub.
• One needle, one entry. A needle that has been through a stopper is blunted and no longer sterile.
• Do not leave a needle standing in a stopper between draws. It is an open channel into the vial.
• Never return withdrawn liquid to a vial. Anything that has left is discarded.
• Keep a vial upright and capped when it is not being worked with.

05 Light, air and adsorption

Ultraviolet and strong visible light degrade several peptide classes, particularly those containing tryptophan, tyrosine or cysteine. Store vials in their cartons and keep preparations out of direct sun.

Oxidation is the other slow loss. Methionine and cysteine residues oxidise on exposure to air, which is one more reason not to leave a vial open or to introduce air unnecessarily when drawing.

Peptides also adsorb onto surfaces. Dilute solutions in plastic can lose a meaningful fraction of their content to the container wall, which is why low-concentration work is done in glass or in low-binding plastics rather than ordinary tubes.

06 Inspecting before use

Hold the vial against a light source before every use. A reconstituted solution should be clear and free of visible particulates.

Cloudiness, strands, floating material or a residue that will not dissolve all mean the preparation should not be used. So does a colour change in a compound that was previously colourless.

A dry cake that has collapsed into a shrunken pellet or has gone from white to yellow-brown has usually seen heat or moisture. Note the batch number and contact us before reconstituting it.

07 Disposal

Needles and syringes go into a rigid, puncture-resistant sharps container — never into household waste, and never loose in any bin someone else has to empty.

Full sharps containers should be routed through a licensed treatment facility. Many hospitals, clinics and pharmacies in the Philippines accept them, and Republic Act No. 6969 governs their handling as hazardous waste.

Expired or unusable vials should be disposed of with the sharps stream rather than emptied into a drain.