When shortage-based compounding flexibility ended, the compounded GLP-1 market did not disappear — it migrated. Over eight weeks we cataloged 40 research-chemical listings for semaglutide and tirzepatide, tracking price, claimed documentation, and — for a purchased subset — laboratory-verified quality.
Pricing tells the first story: research-channel semaglutide sells at a fraction of branded list price, which explains the demand pull. Quality tells the second: verified purity in our purchased subset ranged from 96.8% to 99.1%, with content accuracy varying more than purity.
The structural problem is that the research-chemical channel carries no pharmacist, no prescriber, and no sterility framework — compounds sold for "research use only" are chemically identical but legally and practically unsupported. Our reporting documents the market as it exists; it should not be read as an endorsement of any purchasing channel.
The full dataset, including per-sample laboratory results, is published in our testing database.
