Research Use Only policy

This policy applies to every product listed, offered, quoted or supplied by us, without exception and regardless of compound, quantity, price, packaging, destination, or the identity or affiliation of the Buyer. It applies equally to samples, promotional units, replacement units issued under a claim, and material supplied under a wholesale agreement.

It applies from the moment an order is placed and continues for as long as the Buyer, or anyone the Buyer transfers material to, remains in possession of that material.

All products supplied by us are laboratory research chemicals intended solely for research use by qualified persons in a suitable research setting.

They are expressly not, and are not offered as:

• drugs, medicines, medicinal products or investigational medicinal products;
• foods, food additives, food ingredients or beverages;
• dietary supplements, nutritional supplements or nutraceuticals;
• cosmetics or personal-care products;
• medical devices, in-vitro diagnostic products, or components of either;
• veterinary medicines or products for the care, treatment or enhancement of any animal;
• products intended, packaged, manufactured or sold for human or animal consumption, ingestion, inhalation, application or administration in any form.

No product is supplied for personal use, household use, or use outside a research setting, and no product is sterile, pyrogen-free or otherwise prepared for any use in or on a living subject unless a certificate expressly states the specific test performed and the result obtained.

No product supplied by us has been approved, cleared, authorised or evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, or any comparable authority in any jurisdiction, for any use in humans or animals.

Nothing on this site constitutes medical, veterinary, pharmaceutical, nutritional or legal advice. No statement made by us — in a product description, a certificate of analysis, a literature citation, an email, or any other communication — should be read as a representation that any product is safe, effective, suitable or lawful for administration to a person or an animal.

A certificate of analysis is a record of specified analytical tests performed on a specified lot. It is not an approval, a clearance, a safety finding, a fitness-for-purpose determination or a quality warranty beyond the tests it names. See Testing & COAs for what our certificates do and do not cover.

Products may be used only for legitimate laboratory research, analytical reference, method development, quality control, or comparable scientific work conducted by qualified personnel in a facility appropriate to the handling of research chemicals.

Where research involves laboratory animals, it is the Buyer's sole responsibility to hold and maintain every approval that applies — institutional animal care and use committee approval or its local equivalent, licensing, ethics review, and any permit required by law. We do not supply material as a veterinary product, we do not advise on study design, and we do not verify the existence of any approval.

By placing an order, the Buyer represents and warrants, on their own behalf and on behalf of any entity they order for, that each of the following is true at the time of the order and will remain true:

• the Buyer is at least 21 years of age and has full legal capacity to enter into a binding contract;
• the Buyer is a qualified researcher, or acts under the direction of one, with the training and experience to handle research chemicals of incompletely characterised toxicological profile safely and lawfully;
• the material is being acquired solely for laboratory research use as defined in this policy;
• the Buyer has access to a facility suitable for the receipt, storage, handling and lawful disposal of such material;
• the Buyer will not use, permit the use of, or transfer the material for use in or on any human being, and will not use it as a veterinary product;
• the Buyer will not resell, repackage, relabel or redistribute the material for human or animal consumption, or to any person the Buyer believes or ought reasonably to believe intends such use;
• the acquisition, possession, import and intended use of the material are lawful in every jurisdiction that applies to the Buyer, including the destination jurisdiction;
• the Buyer will ensure that anyone to whom they transfer the material is bound by restrictions no less strict than these.

These warranties are a condition of sale, not a disclaimer. A Buyer who gives them falsely is in material breach of our Terms of Service; every obligation we would otherwise owe in respect of the affected order is void, and the Buyer indemnifies us in accordance with those terms.

Before an order can be completed, the Buyer must affirmatively acknowledge this policy. That acknowledgement is recorded against the order with a timestamp and retained as part of our transaction records.

It is not a formality and it is not treated as one. Where an order is placed by a person acting for an organisation, the acknowledgement binds both.

Consistent with the research-use basis of supply, we do not provide, and will not provide on request, whether publicly or privately:

• quantities, schedules or protocols for use in a person or an animal;
• routes of administration;
• preparation, reconstitution or formulation instructions framed for use in or on a living subject;
• therapeutic, curative, preventive, diagnostic, cosmetic, body-composition or performance claims;
• comparisons framed around outcomes in a person, including testimonials, case reports of personal use, or before-and-after material;
• any opinion on whether a compound is safe, effective or suitable for use in a person or an animal.

This restriction binds our staff in all channels — email, chat, telephone, social media and in person. Requests of this kind are answered with a reference to this policy and the Prohibited Uses policy, and are not otherwise engaged with.

Products are supplied labelled for research use, identified by lot code, and accompanied by a packing slip recording the lot supplied against each line. The corresponding certificate of analysis is published in the certificate library and remains available after the lot has sold out.

The Buyer is responsible for:

• keeping research-use labelling and lot identification intact, including on any subdivided or transferred material;
• storing and handling the material in accordance with the conditions stated on the relevant product page and with applicable safety regulation;
• maintaining whatever records their institution, funder or regulator requires; and
• disposing of unused or expired material through a lawful chemical waste route.

Material may not be resold, redistributed, repackaged, relabelled, compounded or otherwise supplied onward for human or animal consumption under any circumstances.

Resale for research use is permitted only under an executed wholesale agreement with us. A reseller must pass through the research-use restriction, the lot identification and the associated certificate to its own customers without alteration, and must not present the material in a manner that suggests consumer use. Accounts that market our material for human use are closed, and any pending order is cancelled without refund.

The legal status of the compounds we supply differs between jurisdictions and changes over time. Some are controlled, some are restricted to licensed institutions, and some may not lawfully be imported at all.

Determining the position that applies to the Buyer — before ordering — is the Buyer's responsibility, including any state-level restriction and any licence or approval the Buyer's institution requires. We ship within the United States only. We do not, and cannot, advise on the law of the Buyer's jurisdiction.

We may, at our sole discretion and without liability, refuse or cancel any order, suspend or close any account, decline to supply a particular compound to a particular destination, or terminate a wholesale agreement, where we believe on reasonable grounds that this policy has been or is likely to be breached.

Indicators that lead to a refusal include orders inconsistent with research use, requests for administration guidance, requests to alter customs declarations, resale listings that market our material for consumption, and any statement by a Buyer indicating intended human use. We do not owe an explanation for a refusal, though we will usually give one.

Where required by law we will cooperate with regulatory and law-enforcement authorities, including by producing order records and the acknowledgement recorded against an order.

We may update this policy to reflect changes in law, regulatory guidance or our own practice. The version in force at the time an order is placed governs that order. The date at the head of this document is the date of the current version, and material changes will be noted on this page.

Questions about this policy should be directed to our compliance route via the contact page. Questions asking us to depart from it will be answered by reference to it.