ClinicalTrials.gov Recruiting Trials & Study Contacts

Turn public ClinicalTrials.gov study records into structured research data for Clay, n8n, spreadsheets and internal analysis. The default search returns RECRUITING studies with an INDUSTRY lead sponsor, across all conditions, phases and countries.

Important use restriction: ClinicalTrials.gov prohibits using email addresses extracted from its database for marketing or other promotional purposes. This Actor is for research and study coordination workflows. Its contacts are study coordination contacts, not verified sponsor-company sales, purchasing or procurement decision makers.

What you receive

One Dataset row per unique NCT ID, with the study title, lead sponsor, phase, recruitment status, study contacts, location count and source dates. JSON preserves every central contact, including any source-provided role, phone extension or additional property. CSV includes central_contacts_json so multiple contacts survive a flat-file export.

This Actor does not promise that every trial has a central email or phone. Missing scalar values are null; no contacts are represented by an empty array. No addresses are guessed or enriched. A missing locations list produces a null count; a present empty list produces zero.

Input example

{
  "condition": "lung cancer",
  "phase": "PHASE2",
  "overall_status": "RECRUITING",
  "sponsor_class": "INDUSTRY",
  "country": "United States",
  "maxResults": 25,
  "maxCostUsd": 0.20
}

Input	Default	Meaning
condition	empty	ClinicalTrials.gov condition search expression; empty includes all conditions
phase	ALL	ALL, NA, EARLY_PHASE1, PHASE1, PHASE2, PHASE3, PHASE4
overall_status	RECRUITING	Exact API overall status from the input selector
sponsor_class	INDUSTRY	Lead sponsor class; ALL removes this filter
country	empty	Exact source country name, e.g. United States; at least one listed study location must match
maxResults	100	Maximum unique studies, 1–10,000
maxCostUsd	1	Run event spending cap in USD, 0–80
pageSize	100	Advanced: source page size, 1–100
runTimeoutSeconds	240	Advanced: collection deadline, 30–3,600 seconds

A country match does not mean that a particular site is currently recruiting. Overall recruitment status describes the study. Phase is often absent for observational studies or not applicable; ALL retains those studies. Condition uses the source search semantics, not a local keyword match. NCT-ID shortcuts are rejected because the source can ignore other filters for those queries.

Output fields

Field	Description
nct_id	Unique ClinicalTrials.gov study identifier
brief_title	Public brief study title
lead_sponsor_name	Registered lead sponsor name
lead_sponsor_class	Registered lead sponsor class
phase	All source phases joined with a pipe, or null
phases	Lossless source phase array
overall_status	Source overall study status
central_contact_name / phone / email	Values from the first central contact; null if absent
central_contacts	Complete source central-contact array
central_contacts_json	Same contacts serialized as JSON text for CSV import
locations_count	Number of all listed locations, not just locations in the selected country
location_countries	Distinct countries from listed study locations
study_url	Direct ClinicalTrials.gov source link
source_updated_at	Study's last posted update date, as supplied by the source
source_processed_at	API-wide dataTimestamp from /api/v2/version, preserved without inventing a timezone
fetched_at	UTC timestamp when this row was processed
source	ClinicalTrials.gov attribution
contact_type	study coordination contact

Pricing and limits

USD 0.008 per successful unique study saved to the run Dataset — USD 8 per 1,000 studies. Runtime platform usage is included. There is no start fee, request fee, retry fee, error fee or duplicate fee. Studies without contact details still count as successful study records and are charged at the same price. Empty results produce no study events.

The smaller of maxCostUsd and Apify's run maximum charge applies, rounded down to complete studies. For example, USD 0.02 permits two studies (USD 0.016). Below USD 0.008, no study is fetched. maxResults also applies. Post-run storage, retention and export interactions follow Apify's standard platform rules.

Deduplication is by NCT ID within a run, including restoration from its Dataset after restart. Running the Actor again is a separate extraction and can return the same studies with current source information. SDK storage and event charging are used together; data is saved before a result event is billed.

Reliability

The Actor uses HTTP/JSON only, without browsers or proxy bypass. Requests are sequential and at least 1.5 seconds apart. Requests time out after 20 seconds and retry transient failures up to four times with exponential backoff, jitter and Retry-After handling. Permanent client errors fail without retry. Empty pages with continuation tokens are followed. Repeated tokens fail rather than looping.

If the collection deadline is reached between records, accessible partial output remains with a SUMMARY stop reason. Exhausted HTTP retries fail the run; earlier successful rows remain available and billed, while the failed request creates no error row or charge. Very large extractions may require increasing the collection deadline and Apify run timeout.

No input, contact values, authorization headers or secret credentials are printed to logs. The public API needs no source API key.

Clay, n8n and API use

1. Start this Actor from Apify Console or an authorized Apify API request.
2. Wait for the run to finish and read its defaultDatasetId.
3. Fetch https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/DATASET_ID/items?format=json for JSON, or change format to csv.
4. In n8n, use the Apify integration or HTTP Request node. In Clay, import CSV or use an authorized HTTP/API workflow.

Keep your Apify token in your integration's credential store, not shared URLs or spreadsheets. JSON is recommended when nested contacts matter. SUMMARY in the default Key-value store records page count, retries, stop reason and source data timestamp.

Source, freshness and permitted use

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov API v2, published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Terms and Conditions apply to source data and downstream use.

The underlying public registry data is available free from ClinicalTrials.gov. The Actor fee covers extraction and structuring; AFK MESH claims no ownership of the source database and no government endorsement. This is an independent service.

We select and flatten study fields, derive location counts and country lists, expose the first contact in scalar columns, retain complete central contacts, and add provenance timestamps. We do not verify sponsor-submitted accuracy, interpret medical eligibility, or provide medical advice.

ClinicalTrials.gov changes over time. Re-run before relying on an export, retain the displayed dates and attribution, and review the source record for updates. Exported snapshots do not update themselves. Source terms also address warranties, international and third-party rights; users remain responsible for complying with applicable conditions. Extracted emails must not be used for marketing or promotion.

Validation

Release QA covers real recruiting/industry defaults, combined condition/phase/country filters, pageToken continuation across three pages, absent contacts and zero matches. Automated tests additionally cover duplicate IDs, cost limits, empty continuation pages, repeated tokens, invalid inputs, HTTP 400, 429 Retry-After, non-JSON responses and request timeouts.

Developed and tested as NEWAPI41. Support: open an Apify Store issue with the run ID and filter settings; do not post personal contact data or credentials.