Comment · Mon, February 9, 2026 · ND Owner
Behind the Scenes at Nootropics Depot: Inside Our Pharmaceutical-Grade Testing Labs 🧪
Original post in this thread
NootropicsDepotCom · 42 points
We were recently featured in a PricePlow article that goes behind the scenes of our Tempe, AZ pharmaceutical-grade labs and testing process. It walks through how we use in-house UPLC/HPLC, custom analytical methods, and even a cell culture program to verify bioactive content and better understand how ingredients actually interact with human cells. The piece also talks about our work calling out under-dosed or misrepresented products in the wider market, and how Omnient Labs is now offering our testing capabilities to other brands to help raise quality standards across the industry.
If you’re interested in the “how” behind Nootropics Depot and why we’re so obsessive about data, it’s a solid overview worth a read.
https://blog.priceplow.com/industry-news/nootropics-depot-pharmaceutical-grade-labs
What they were answering
Annual-Lifeguard4905 · -3 points
You sound like an Uber driver who keeps bitching about how great and exclusive he is because he repairs his car himself while others hire mechanics, washes the car himself while others use a car wash, and attends Toyota Camry conventions yearly while others dgaf. :)
Your ISO lab is your source of income. You offer testing services to other companies, so it’s not something a dietary supplement company needs.
You offer other companies the option to hire you to package their supplements, so the fact that you have a tableting machine doesn’t give you any credit : that’s just another source of income.
If you want to call yourself a vertically integrated company, nobody can stop you. If you want to BE a vertically integrated company, like Eli Lilly, then you need to control your supply chain: they create, synthesize and produce the product. If their co-manufacturer fails, they simply hire another company because they are the patent holders.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
HAHAHAHAHA! Eli Lily?!? You think Eli Lily synthesizes all the precursors they use in their drugs? Eli Lily doesn't even synthesize all their drugs, either! They also now outsource some of their R&D.
https://www.lilly.com/ie/our-medicines/manufacturing-and-quality
With the help of a large network of global external manufacturing partners, we market products in approximately 105 countries.
The studio lab physically and virtually integrates several areas of the drug discovery process together—including design, synthesis, purification, analysis, sample management, and hypothesis testing
https://www.5-ht.com/en/media/blog/outsourcing-versus-inhouse-research-and-development-automation
Outsourcing of R&D is on the rise as companies seek greater flexibility and efficiency – many now contract out early-stage research and screening to external partners to remain competitive [5].
Outsourcing automated R&D involves handing off experimental work to a third-party that specializes in high-tech, automated laboratories. A notable model is the rise of “cloud labs”, which are essentially remote-controlled laboratories available as a service. As one definition puts it, a cloud lab is “a third-party laboratory that takes on experimental work on behalf of outsourcing organizations” [3]. These facilities are highly automated, equipped with broad arrays of instruments, and accessible via the internet. Scientists design experiments via a web interface or scripting API, and the cloud lab’s robotic systems execute the work, 24/7.
Cambrex, a leading global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), announced today that it has signed an agreement with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) to deliver accelerated access to clinical development capabilities for Lilly’s biotech collaborators.
Why pick Eli Lily as an example of your made up 100% vertically integrated company? They even say they use contract manufacturers for things. You clearly have no idea how any of these industries run. Everybody collaborates in parts of their supply chain. Everyone. Some people outsource more than others. We outsource far far less of the entire process than our competitors in the industry, which is why we are vertically integrated. We are patent holders of some of our ingredients, too. We developed and patented Cognance, and we have partners that produce it for us in India on contract. However, there are ingredients that are patented by other companies that are high quality, like the sucrosomial minerals from Alesco. If we want the benefit of using those patented technologies, we have to go through them. That's literally how every single industry works. The idea that you can only saying you are vertically integrated if you only make and sell your own patented ingredients is stupid. Nobody does that. Even these patent holders don't usually make their own stuff. Magtein is patented by Magceutics. However, they don't even make it. It's made on contract by a supplier in China, and it is distributed on contract by AIDP. All the patented ingredients from Verdure are made on contract by suppliers in India as well. The same goes for Natreon products. They own the patents, but they contract out the production to partners. Many times they work with multiple partners on the same product, to meet demand. We do R&D, sourcing, lab testing, formulation, capsule & tablet manufacturing, finished goods packaging, sales and marketing, fulfillment, and customer support. That is called vertical integration, whether you want to reject reality or not.
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/vertical-integration
the combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies
Also, your Uber driver example is hilarious! Thanks for the laugh. You're right, we are just like Uber drivers doing our own maintenance on our Toyota Camry! LOL