Details on how to start your own testing lab and how much to invest

This is meant only for those in countries where gear is legal, and shouldn't be construed as an actual advice.


First you need to determine how much customers can pay, as revenues determine what equipment you can buy.

IMO most BBers and even sources won't pay the $300-$500 that top labs charge.
So something around $100-$150 tops it.

If all revenues are split:
$50 for consumables (of the chromatography equipment)
$50 to pay equipment installments, or to slowly recoup the investment if the equipment was paid in full
$50 as take home profit

If you get 100 tests per month (about 3 tests per day)
and charge $150 per test
that's $5000 a month for each one above

If you offer an introductory price of just $100 to attract customers, for a limited time
and only get 30 customers the first month
you'd have $1000 for each one of the above

 

With $5000 a month you can't afford a $250,000 GC-MS
although you can buy a used one for about $70,000
- you don't know if it needs expensive repairs
- $50 for both HPLC and GC-MS consumables will be pushing it (albeit still possible)
- it will take 5 long years for $5000 to recoup a $250,000 GC-MS + $50,000 HPLC, a hefty $300k investment

OTOH you can get a nice, new entry level HPLC for about $25,000
i.e. an entry level Shimadzu without an autosampler
While you can get a used HPLC for $10,000 - $15,000 they may need expensive repairs.
Being Japanese made, the entry level Shimadzu is like a Toyota truck, while it doesn't have all the bells and whistles (that may end up confusing you), it's sturdy and lasts a long time.

So you can recoup the $25,000 HPLC machine investment in just 5 months.

 

If you'll invest $25k in the HPLC machine,
Why not to invest some $5000 - $7000 in microbiological QC equipment, so you can offer your customers a better value?

Steroids can help you get a profitable, fully working testing lab, only waiting for full accreditation for generic pharma.

Both steroids customers and generic pharma will be glad you do microbiological testing too.
Simec does that.

For $5000 - $7000 you can buy the microbiological lab equiment, especially if some are bought used.
You'll need:
- The agar/broth growth media
- a stirrer/hot plate
- an autoclave
- syringe filters
- sterile Petri dishes
- an incubator
- a microscope

 

You'll need reference standards, preferably certified ones like these:
Testosterone enantate T0250000

Or you can buy true analytical grade raws and make the reference standards yourself
Testosterone enanthate T3006

Since there are like 30 or 40 different steroids and esters,
you may expect to spend some $4000 in reference standards
plus some $1000 for a HPLC column and $500 for HPLC grade solvents.

So far the investment is
$25,000 for the HPLC equipment
$5000 for the microbiology equipment
$4000 for reference standards
$1000 for a HPLC column
$500 for HPLC grade solvents.
Total $35,500
So you can set a proper lab for the price of a decent, but not great, new car.

You can spend even less if you buy a used HPLC machine.

 

Since you can't afford a $250,000+ GC-MS with a mere $5000 a month,
you'll need another way of identifying steroids
you can do that by making sure their HPLC elution times (also called retention times) the time at which they come out of the separation column to the detector, are identical to those of the reference standards.

First you'll need to search for a suitable testing method online
Most methods I have seen use either C18 or C8 columns.

Let's suppose you use this method
Conditions
column Ascentis C8, 15 cm x 4.6 mm I.D., 5 µm particles (581424-U)
column temp. 35 °C
mobile phase [A] water; acetonitrile; (50:50, A:B)
flow rate 1.0 mL/min
sample as indicated in mobile phase
injection 10 µL
detector UV, 254 nm
HPLC Analysis of Steroids, Anabolic, on Ascentis® C8

You'll need to first inject each reference standard steroid (into the HPLC machine) separately and take note of their retention times
and order them in groups of 5, 7, 10 steroids or so, so their RTs are well apart from each other

Then make multi-steroid reference standards with the above groups
and run a multisteroid test to make sure that chart peaks are well defined and well apart from each other
like this


If not, reorder the steroid groups and rerun until peaks are well defined and apart from each other.

This may take a whole week (even longer with manual injection HPLC equipment) , but hey you will make a living out of this, and get an already running, accredited lab in a couple years.

 

Then, to test steroids
inject all the steroid groups (each one in a separate run)
at a given concentration each (i.e. like 50 ug/ml each, like those on the chart) and save the charts.
You can do calibration runs at different concentrations, if you like.

then inject the sample to test
and check which reference standard group has an identical retention time.
This identifies which steroid is it.

Then make a calibration curve (should be a straight line), with the calibration data above
You can use both peak height and Area Under Curve to make sure results ain't too different from each other.
Then check the peak height and AUC in the sample run, and interpolate to translate that to an actual concentration.
Now software helps you do the calibration curve, linearity check, and interpolation math.

 

Thank you
but to do steroid testing in the States, a DEA license is needed to be able to buy the reference standards.
Uncle Sam even harasses offshore labs if they accept samples from American customers, even if gear is legal in that country.

$30,000-$35,000 ain't a lot of money
anyone can well sell his second car, and get a loan for the rest.

As for the DIY reference standards, you need to dilute the (top lab grade) raws first.

Jano why don't you quietly disappear
Get a real job for a couple year, save some money
then get a loan for the rest
then come back with real lab equipment.

You know what?
With that attitude problem you're too unemployable for any real job
You'll have to resort to doing Gay4Pay to earn some money.

I don't have any other handle.
Only insecure people have alternate handles.

 

Most certified reference standards are dissolved in acetonitrile
Testosterone | Certified Solutions Standards | Certified Reference Materials

and some in methanol or other solvents like this one in 1,2-dimethoxyethane.
Methandienone solution M912
Solvents should always be HPLC grade
and always (or almost always) diluted to 1 mg/ml.

Standards are never injected into the machine as is,
they are always further diluted.

 

Just a list to see how many reference standards are needed

1 Drostanolone enanthate (@master.on favorite steroid)
2 Drostanolone propionate
3 Nandrolone decanoate
4 Nandrolone phenylpropionate
5 Nandrolone cypionate
6 Nandrolone undecylenate
7 Nandrolone laurate
8 testosterone enanthate
9 Testosterone cypionate
10 Testosterone propionate
11 Testosterone acetate
12 Testosterone no ester
13 Testosterone decanoate
14 Testosterone undecanoate
15 Testosterone isocaproate
16 Testosterone phenylpropionate
17 trenbolone acetate
18 Trenbolone enanthate
19 Trenbolone hexahydrobenzylcarbonate
20 Trenbolone no ester
21 Boldenone undecylenate
22 Boldenone cypionate
23 Boldenone acetate
24 Boldenone no ester
25 Methenolone enanthate
26 Methenolone acetate
27 Trestolone acetate
28 Trestolone enanthate
29 Trestolone decanoate
30 Dihydroboldenone / 1-Testosterone
31 Clostebol acetate
32 Stanozolol
33 Methyltestosterone
34 Oxymetholone
35 Methandrostenolone / Methandienone
36 Fluoxymesterone
37 4-chlorodehydromethyltestosterone (Tbol)
38 Mesterolone (Proviron)
39 Methasterone (Sdrol)
40 Oxandrolone


So that's 40 steroids
If every reference standard costs an average $100 that's $4000

So far, the HPLC+microbiology lab is a $40,000 investment.

 

If for every steroid tested, all samples are injected at 50 ug per ml, and 10 microliters ul are injected at once.

1 mg = 20 times x 50 ug
1 ml = 100 times x 10 ul
so theoretically a 1 mg reference standard lasts for 2000 (20 x 100) tests.

Supposing a 50% waste (i.e. some liquid adheres to micropipette tip walls)
So, 1 mg lasts 1000 tests (once the method has been fully developed and verified)

So the $4000 spent on reference standards last about 1000 tests
That's $4 per test
Not bad at all, since you're always running a calibration run before every sample = great accuracy.


Not bad, since you can test steroids with a $40k investment.
Compare that to a $209,000 investment.
$200,000 an GC-MS/FID costs + $5000 for the microbiology lab + $4000 for the reference standards.
Operating costs and repairs for GC are much higher too.
Not for nothing labs charge $300-500 per test.