Storage & shelf life.
Every storage window below was read off a current FDA Structured Product Label, and every row links to the label it came from. Then the harder half of the page: why there is no equivalent table for research peptides, and why we refuse to invent one.
A label's storage window is a claim about one manufacturer's formulation in one container, backed by stability data that manufacturer submitted. It does not transfer to a compounded version, a research vial, or a different brand of the same molecule. Always follow the leaflet that came with your actual product, and your pharmacist or prescriber over anything on this page.
FDA-approved products.
Presentations of the same drug are listed separately wherever the label treats them differently, because collapsing them would print a number that is wrong for half of readers. The Ozempic pen and the Ozempic syringe, and Egrifta SV and Egrifta WR, are the clearest examples.
| Product | Unopened storage | In use / after reconstitution | Warnings | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ozempic, multi-dose pensemaglutide injectionSemaglutide profile → | 2°C to 8°C (36°F to 46°F) until the expiration date, in the original carton. | After first use, 56 days at 15°C to 30°C (59°F to 86°F), or refrigerated at 2°C to 8°C. | Do not freeze, and do not use if it has been frozen. | Ozempic label, DailyMed |
| Ozempic, single-dose prefilled syringesemaglutide injectionSemaglutide profile → | 2°C to 8°C (36°F to 46°F). | May be kept at 8°C to 30°C (46°F to 86°F) for up to 28 days. Discard the syringe after use. | Do not freeze. Protect from light. | Ozempic label, DailyMed |
| Wegovy, single-dose pen or syringesemaglutide injectionSemaglutide profile → | 2°C to 8°C (36°F to 46°F). | Up to 28 days at 8°C to 30°C (46°F to 86°F) prior to cap removal. Discard after use. | Do not freeze, and do not use if it has been frozen. | Wegovy label, DailyMed |
| Wegovy FlexTouch, single-patient-use pensemaglutide injectionSemaglutide profile → | 2°C to 8°C (36°F to 46°F). | After first use, 56 days at 15°C to 30°C (59°F to 86°F), or refrigerated. | Do not freeze, and do not use if it has been frozen. | Wegovy label, DailyMed |
| Mounjaro, single-dose pen or vialtirzepatide injectionTirzepatide profile → | 2°C to 8°C (36°F to 46°F). | May be stored unrefrigerated at temperatures not to exceed 30°C (86°F) for up to a total of 21 days, then discard. | Do not freeze. Do not use if frozen. | Mounjaro label, DailyMed |
| Mounjaro, multi-dose vial or KwikPentirzepatide injectionTirzepatide profile → | 2°C to 8°C until the expiration date. If kept at room temperature up to 30°C (86°F), discard after 30 days. | Once opened, discard after 30 days at room temperature, 30 days after first use, or after four weekly doses, whichever comes first. | Do not freeze. Do not use if frozen. | Mounjaro label, DailyMed |
| Zepbound, all presentationstirzepatide injectionTirzepatide profile → | Identical to Mounjaro: 2°C to 8°C, with the same room-temperature allowances per presentation. | Identical to Mounjaro: 21 days for single-dose, 30 days or four weekly doses for multi-dose vial and KwikPen. | Do not freeze. Do not use if frozen. | Zepbound label, DailyMed |
| Victoza penliraglutide injectionLiraglutide profile → | 2°C to 8°C (36°F to 46°F). | After first use, 30 days at 15°C to 30°C (59°F to 86°F), or refrigerated. | Do not freeze, and do not use if it has been frozen. | Victoza label, DailyMed |
| Saxenda penliraglutide injectionLiraglutide profile → | 2°C to 8°C (36°F to 46°F). | After initial use, 30 days at 15°C to 30°C (59°F to 86°F), or refrigerated. | Do not freeze, and do not use if it has been frozen. | Saxenda label, DailyMed |
| Egrifta WR, lyophilized powdertesamorelin for injectionTesamorelin profile → | Room temperature, 20°C to 25°C (68°F to 77°F), excursions permitted 15°C to 30°C. Keep in the original box, protected from light. | Reconstituted solution: store at 20°C to 25°C and discard unused solution 7 days after mixing. | Do not freeze. Egrifta WR and Egrifta SV are not substitutable. | Egrifta WR label, DailyMed |
| Egrifta SV, lyophilized powdertesamorelin for injectionTesamorelin profile → | Room temperature, 20°C to 25°C (68°F to 77°F), excursions permitted 15°C to 30°C. | Use immediately after reconstitution. If not used immediately, discard. | Do not freeze or refrigerate the reconstituted solution. Not substitutable with Egrifta WR. | Egrifta SV label, DailyMed |
| Vyleesi autoinjectorbremelanotide injectionPT-141 profile → | At or below 25°C (77°F). Not a refrigerated product. | Single-dose autoinjector, so there is no in-use window. | Do not freeze. Protect from light. | Vyleesi label, DailyMed |
| Genotropin, 5 mg and 12 mg cartridgessomatropin for injectionHuman Growth Hormone profile → | Powder: 2°C to 8°C (36°F to 46°F) until the expiration date, protected from light. | After reconstitution, refrigerate at 2°C to 8°C between each use for up to 28 days, then discard. | Do not freeze. | Genotropin label, DailyMed |
| Genotropin MiniQuicksomatropin for injectionHuman Growth Hormone profile → | Powder: 2°C to 8°C, or up to 3 months at or below 25°C (77°F) before reconstitution. | After reconstitution, refrigerate for up to 24 hours. Single use only. | Do not freeze. | Genotropin label, DailyMed |
| Norditropin pensomatropin injection (ready-made solution)Human Growth Hormone profile → | 2°C to 8°C (36°F to 46°F) until the expiration date. | In use, either 4 weeks refrigerated or 3 weeks at up to 25°C (77°F), depending on the presentation. | Do not freeze. Avoid direct light. | Norditropin label, DailyMed |
| Pregnyl, lyophilized powderchorionic gonadotropin for injectionHCG profile → | 15°C to 25°C (59°F to 77°F) controlled room temperature. Note this is not the usual 20°C to 25°C range. | After reconstitution, refrigerate at 2°C to 8°C (36°F to 46°F) until use and discard after 60 days. | Do not shake. Do not freeze. | Pregnyl label, DailyMed |
| Scenesse implantafamelanotide implantAfamelanotide profile → | Refrigerate at 2°C to 8°C (36°F to 46°F). Protect from light. | Single implant. The carton is brought to ambient temperature before the procedure. | The label carries no freeze statement. | Scenesse label, DailyMed |
| Elmiron capsulespentosan polysulfate sodiumPentosan Polysulfate profile → | 20°C to 25°C (68°F to 77°F), excursions permitted to 15°C to 30°C (59°F to 86°F). | Oral capsules, so there is no reconstitution or in-use window. | The label carries no freeze statement. | Elmiron label, DailyMed |
| Pitocin injectionoxytocin injection, USPOxytocin profile → | 20°C to 25°C (68°F to 77°F), USP controlled room temperature. | The label states no in-use window, despite this being a multiple-dose vial. | No refrigeration and no freeze statement on the label. | Pitocin label, DailyMed |
Research peptides: the table that does not exist.
You will find storage windows for BPC-157, TB-500, ipamorelin, CJC-1295 and the rest quoted confidently all over the internet, usually to the day. We are not going to reproduce them, because for the overwhelming majority of research peptides no published stability study exists for the product you would actually be holding.
A shelf life on an approved product is the output of a real stability programme: batches held at defined temperatures and humidities, sampled over time, assayed for potency and degradation products, and submitted to a regulator who reviews the data before the number goes on the carton. None of that happens for a research-use-only vial. There is no required programme, no assay, no submission and no reviewer. A number that circulates without that work behind it is a convention or a commercial claim, not a measurement.
The closest thing to an official touchpoint is the FDA briefing material prepared for the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee, which summarises reported stability literature for a handful of peptides while evaluating whether they are suitable bulk substances for compounding. Those documents are advisory-committee review materials summarising other people's reports, not approved labelling and not guidance, and in the same review FDA concluded that BPC-157 is not well characterised. That is evidence the question was asked. It is not a shelf-life specification.
What can be said honestly is what governs peptide stability in general. That is a description of chemistry, it applies to the class rather than to any specific vial, and it will not give you a date.
Lyophilized or in solution
A freeze-dried peptide has had the water removed, and water is what most degradation pathways need. Hydrolysis, deamidation and oxidation all run far slower in a dry powder than in a solution. This is why approved lyophilized products carry long powder shelf lives and short post-reconstitution windows, and why the single largest change to a peptide's stability is the moment you add water to it.
Temperature
Degradation is a chemical reaction, so it speeds up with heat, roughly exponentially rather than linearly. That is why labels specify ranges rather than a ceiling, and why a room-temperature excursion is treated as spending part of a fixed budget. Nothing on a label implies that a product held above its range is merely slightly worse; the manufacturer has simply stopped making any claim about it.
Light
Several labels here say protect from light or keep in the original carton. Peptides containing tryptophan, tyrosine, phenylalanine, methionine or cysteine can photo-oxidise, and that damage is not visible. Keeping the vial in its box is the cheapest control available.
Bacteriostatic water versus sterile water
Bacteriostatic water for injection contains 0.9% benzyl alcohol, which suppresses microbial growth and is what allows a multi-use vial to be entered repeatedly. Sterile water for injection contains no preservative at all, so a vial reconstituted with it is single-use in practice. The distinction is a microbiological one, not a chemical-stability one. Benzyl alcohol does not stop the peptide itself from degrading, and it does not extend chemical shelf life.
Freeze-thaw cycles and agitation
Repeated freezing and thawing concentrates solutes and creates ice interfaces that can denature and aggregate a peptide, which is why a single freeze is treated very differently from repeated ones. Vigorous shaking introduces air interfaces with the same effect. Pregnyl's label says do not shake for exactly this reason.
The formulation, not just the molecule
An approved product is a molecule plus buffers, tonicity agents, stabilisers and a specific container closure, and the stability data belongs to that whole package. This is the reason label windows cannot be transferred: Egrifta SV and Egrifta WR are the same active ingredient with opposite post-reconstitution instructions, because they are different formulations.
A blank is honest. A number that looks measured and is not will get trusted, repeated, and eventually used to decide whether something in a fridge is still good. We would rather tell you the data does not exist than launder a supplier's marketing copy into something that looks like a specification. If you find a real published stability study on a research peptide, that is exactly the sort of thing we want to cite, so send it to us.
FAQ.
How long does BPC-157 last once reconstituted?
Nobody has published a measurement you can rely on. BPC-157 is research-use-only, has no FDA label, and no manufacturer has run and published a stability programme on it. The specific numbers you will find quoted online, usually somewhere between a few weeks and a few months refrigerated, trace back to supplier product pages and general peptide-handling conventions rather than to testing of the product in your hand. We would rather print nothing than print a number that sounds measured and is not.
So where do all the research peptide stability numbers online come from?
Three places, none of which is a measurement of your vial. Manufacturer or reseller product pages, which are commercial claims with no published data behind them. General laboratory peptide-handling guidance, which is sound advice about a class of molecules but says nothing about a particular peptide at a particular concentration in a particular buffer. And repetition, where a number gets copied between sites until its ubiquity starts to look like evidence.
Is there any FDA document that discusses research peptide stability?
Indirectly, yes. FDA briefing documents prepared for the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee summarise reported stability literature for some peptides as part of evaluating whether a bulk substance is suitable for compounding. Those are advisory-committee review materials summarising other people's reports, not approved labelling, not guidance, and not a recommendation. In the same documents FDA concluded that BPC-157 is not well characterised. Treat them as evidence that the question was asked, not as a shelf-life specification.
Does bacteriostatic water make a vial last longer?
It makes a vial safe to enter more than once, which is a microbiological benefit, not a chemical one. The 0.9% benzyl alcohol suppresses bacterial growth in the vial. It does nothing to slow hydrolysis, deamidation, oxidation or aggregation of the peptide itself, so the chemical clock starts when the water goes in regardless of which water you used.
Can I use an approved product's storage window for a research peptide with the same molecule?
No, and the labels on this page show why better than any argument could. Egrifta SV and Egrifta WR contain the same active ingredient, tesamorelin, and their post-reconstitution instructions are opposites: one must be used immediately and must not be refrigerated, the other gets seven days at room temperature. Stability belongs to the formulation, the container and the manufacturing process, not to the molecule. A research vial shares none of those.
What does an expiration date on a research peptide vial mean?
It means the seller printed a date. An expiration date on an approved product is a regulatory commitment backed by stability data submitted to and reviewed by the FDA, and the manufacturer is accountable for it. On a research-use-only vial, no agency has reviewed anything and no data has to exist. The date may be conservative, may be arbitrary, and cannot be checked.