Short answer first, then the reasoning. Inter-laboratory variation comes from real methodological differences, not sloppiness: which reference standard was used and how it was itself calibrated, the gradient and column, the detection wavelength, and where the integration baseline was drawn. A percentage point or two between competent labs is expected. What is not expected is a large gap, and the usual explanation there is that one report is not of the batch in your hand.

That is the short version; the long version is somebody else's post.

PurityPaulOR said:

Inter-laboratory variation comes from real methodological differences, not sloppiness: which reference standard was used and how it was itself…

PurityPaulOR has the substance of this right. The condition it depends on is worth stating. One addition: an unstated method makes a report close to uninterpretable. "99% pure" without the technique, the standard and the conditions is a claim, not a measurement.

If somebody has the primary source to hand I would rather cite it than paraphrase it.

ingrid_STO said:

I have a certificate reporting 99.2% purity and 6.1mg content on a vial sold as 5mg, and I cannot work out whether those two numbers are consistent or…

Same position here, arrived at the long way round. They are not contradictory, they measure different things, and this is the single most common misreading of a certificate. Purity is a relative area measurement: the main peak as a percentage of total peak area in the chromatogram. Content is an absolute mass measurement against a reference standard. A vial can be 99% pure and contain 6.1mg — pure material, overfilled — or 99% pure and contain 3mg, which is pure material and a short fill. Purity tells you what fraction of what is there is the right molecule; content tells you how much of it there is. You need both, and a certificate with only purity is telling you half the story.

Clinical perspective, offered as context rather than as advice.

Third-party testing services for certificates of analysis besides Janoshik:

• Janoshik: Gold standard for peptide community, ~$138, 10-14 day turnaround
• Valitech: US-based, ISO 17025 accredited, ~$248
• Eurofins: Full pharmaceutical testing suite, more expensive but comprehensive
• ChemTox: Basic identity and purity testing, ~$128

Janoshik is the community standard but any ISO-accredited analytical lab can verify peptide identity and purity. The key is independence — don't rely solely on the vendor's own testing.