OpenFDA Drug & Recall Monitor

Search FDA data for drug adverse events, recalls, and enforcement reports for any drug, device, food, or company. Official openFDA data.

What it does

This Actor queries the public openFDA API by keyword across five datasets: drug adverse events, drug recalls, device recalls, food recalls, and drug labels. Give it a drug name, device, food product, or company name and it returns normalized, structured records plus a run summary.

Example input

{ "query": "ibuprofen", "dataset": "drug-recalls", "limit": 25 }

Adverse events reported for a drug since a given date:

{ "query": "metformin", "dataset": "drug-events", "limit": 50, "sinceDate": "20240101" }

Input

Field	Type	Description
query	string	Required. Keyword to search for: a drug name, device, food product, or company.
dataset	string	Which openFDA dataset to search: drug-events, drug-recalls, device-recalls, food-recalls, or drug-labels. Default drug-recalls.
limit	integer	How many records to return, up to 100. Default 25.
sinceDate	string	Only include records reported on or after this date (YYYYMMDD). Optional.

Output

Recall and enforcement datasets (drug-recalls, device-recalls, food-recalls):

{
  "recallNumber": "D-727-2015",
  "firm": "Attix Pharmaceuticals",
  "product": "Ibuprofen active pharmaceutical ingredient packaged in varying grams or kg in bags or drums",
  "reason": "Penicillin Cross Contamination: lots repackaged in a facility with penicillin products without adequate separation.",
  "classification": "Class II",
  "status": "Terminated",
  "recallInitiationDate": "20141114",
  "distributionPattern": "Nationwide to compounding pharmacies and research organizations.",
  "dataset": "drug-recalls"
}

Adverse events (drug-events):

{
  "safetyReportId": "10003301",
  "drugs": ["IBUPROFEN"],
  "reactions": ["Dyspepsia", "Renal impairment"],
  "serious": true,
  "receiveDate": "20140228",
  "dataset": "drug-events"
}

Drug labels (drug-labels):

{
  "brandName": "Advil",
  "genericName": "IBUPROFEN",
  "manufacturer": "Lil' Drug Store Products, Inc.",
  "purpose": "Pain reliever/fever reducer",
  "warnings": "Stomach bleeding warning: this product contains an NSAID...",
  "dataset": "drug-labels"
}

Run summary (OUTPUT)

The run's default key-value store record OUTPUT holds a summary:

{
  "dataset": "drug-recalls",
  "query": "ibuprofen",
  "sinceDate": null,
  "totalMatched": 68,
  "returned": 10,
  "generatedFrom": "https://api.fda.gov/drug/enforcement.json?search=..."
}

How it works

The Actor calls the public openFDA API (https://api.fda.gov), no API key required. It builds a field-targeted search for the chosen dataset (recall description and firm name for enforcement data, medicinal product for adverse events, brand/generic/substance name for labels), adds a date range when sinceDate is given, and sends a descriptive User-Agent on every request. Requests are retried with backoff on rate limiting (429) and server errors (5xx); other client errors fail fast. A query with zero matches is treated as an empty result, not an error.

Use cases

• Monitor a drug or device for new recalls and safety enforcement actions.
• Track adverse event reports for a medication over time.
• Look up label warnings and active ingredients for a brand or generic drug.
• Screen a supplier or manufacturer for recall history before sourcing.