We've been getting a lot of inquiries about these for metabolic work lately — usually the 5mg or 10mg depending on your batch — and the 5mg vials are what most buyers go with for initial reconstitution in sterile water, though you'll want to filter-sterilize regardless since the lyophilized powder is sterile but not pre-filtered. It's basically a long-chain peptide (3270.8 g/mol) so it dissolves a little slower than some others, give or take 30 seconds of gentle swirling. They store at -20°C protected form light, and we usually have stock, but confirm lead time for the 24-month shelf life batches.
The white powder in those sealed glass vials under inert gas is typically ≥98% by HPLC, which is better than reagent grade for this sort of body composition research. Check the COA though — we've got batch-specific ones, but the endotoxin level is <0.1 EU/mg, so you're fine for most in vivo models. Not huge on solubility specs beyond sterile water, but it's pretty much what you'd expect. It's not suited for acute dosing studies in larger mammals where you need rapid resuspension at high concentrations.
So the trust factor really comes down to QC paperwork — we ship each order with a COA that matches teh batch number on the vial label, and what it does is give you the HPLC purity and endotoxin levels. 3-5 business days typically for domestic orders, but the 5L drum is easier to handle if you're buying in volume. That said, the molecular formula (C148H244N44O42) is a mouthful, but the chains are well-characterized for receptor binding work.
One thing you wouldn't think to ask — the powder can be slightly hygroscopic, so don't leave it out on the bench for more than a few minutes when reconstituting. We had a lab last month that kept the vial open during serial dilutions and the weight drifted about 5%. Anyway, for research use only, nobody's dosing humans with this stuff, but for your metabolic panels or muscle growth assays, the 50 units or so per vial should give you consistent results across triplicates. Most batches hold at -20°C for 24 months or so before noticeable degradation.