Comment · Fri, October 15, 2021 · ND Owner
Why is EVERY lions mane brand Chinese
What they were answering
odder_sea · 2 points
I'm really tired of the "American rule" that allows big corps to bully smaller companies into submission with frivolous lawsuits and forces the little guy to concede or pursue a pyrrhic victory.
Out of curiosity (feel free to not answer if it is considered a trade secret) what is the marginal cost of lab testing for most products? How much does it generally cost to pay a reliable third party for validation?
I've had the wheels turning up top for a nonprofit that tests, validates, and potentially pursues causes of action under the RICO act against serial perpetrators in the dietary supplement industry. It's apparent that if no-one does it, it just won't happen, and we are begging for the FDA to come in and restrict everything if the industry refuses to police itself.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
It really depends on the product. To do the full panel we do on synthetics at a 3rd party ISO certified lab would likely cost about $800-$1,500 per batch. Some things need specialized methods like 2D NMR, where other ones can use FTIR for ID, so it depends on the product. For example, adrafinil polymorphs act strange with infrared light. That's one that needs NMR every batch. Other things have good carbon signals with no interference, so a cheaper method like FTIR can work. The same goes for assay. Sometimes you can get away with simple HPLC assays. Other times you need more specialized ones, like UPLC-MS or pre-column derivatization.
There is more variability in natural extracts. Synthetics are usually just a single chemical. Those are much easier than complex matrices like you get with plant extracts. You have to use things like HP-TLC for ID, which is more expensive. Then the assays are always more complex, since most of the time you are looking to quantitate multiple analytes. This means that reference standards are more expensive most of the time, and the validation and run times and sample preps are longer. The range in cost is larger for plant extracts. I'd say you are looking at $1,000-$3,000 in some cases. This is why many vendors don't test every batch. It's expensive.