ClinicalTrials Intelligence MCP — 450K+ Global Clinical Trials

Search, filter, and analyze 450,000+ clinical trials from ClinicalTrials.gov via a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. This Apify Actor exposes structured clinical trial data to AI assistants (Claude, GPT-4, Cursor), research pipelines, and compliance systems — no API key or authentication required.

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Who Uses This

Pharmaceutical & Biotech Companies

• Competitive intelligence teams monitoring rival drug development pipelines across indication areas
• Business development analysts identifying partnership or licensing opportunities based on phase progression
• Clinical operations managers benchmarking enrollment rates and trial duration by therapeutic area
• Medical affairs teams tracking the landscape of approved vs. investigational therapies

Investment & Finance

• Biotech analysts screening Phase 2→3 transitions to assess near-term catalysts
• Hedge funds with biotech exposure monitoring portfolio company trial status
• Venture capital firms performing due diligence on clinical-stage companies
• Deal teams assessing competitive moat from first-mover advantage in a therapeutic area

Healthcare & Patient Advocacy

• Patient advocates finding recruiting trials for rare disease communities
• Oncology navigators matching patients to eligible clinical trials by diagnosis and location context
• Healthcare journalists verifying drug development claims and trial status

Academic Research

• Systematic review teams collecting all trials in a therapeutic area
• Epidemiologists studying research investment patterns by disease burden
• Grant writers benchmarking their proposed work against existing active trials
• Biostatisticians analyzing trial design trends (e.g. adaptive trials, Bayesian endpoints)

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What You Get

Each trial record returned by this actor contains:

Field	Description
nct_id	ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (e.g. NCT05123456)
title	Trial brief title
status	RECRUITING, COMPLETED, ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING, etc.
phase	PHASE1, PHASE2, PHASE3, PHASE4, or NA
condition	Primary medical condition being studied
intervention	Primary drug/device/procedure being tested
sponsor	Name of the lead sponsor organization
sponsor_type	INDUSTRY, NIH, OTHER, or FED
start_date	Trial start date (YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD)
completion_date	Estimated or actual completion date
enrollment	Estimated or actual enrollment count
brief_summary	First 500 characters of trial description
source	Always clinicaltrials.gov

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Quick Start

Batch Mode (dataset output)

Run the actor with standard input to collect trial data into a dataset:

{
  "condition": "type 2 diabetes",
  "status": "RECRUITING",
  "limit": 50
}

Results appear in the actor's default dataset, downloadable as JSON, CSV, or XLSX from the Apify Console.

MCP Server Mode (AI assistant integration)

Enable serveMcp: true to start the HTTP server on port 4321:

{
  "serveMcp": true
}

Then configure your MCP client to point at http://<run-url>:4321.

Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clinicaltrials": {
      "url": "http://your-apify-run-url:4321"
    }
  }
}

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MCP Tools Reference

search_trials

Search trials by condition, drug, keyword, status, phase, and sponsor type.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
condition	string	Medical condition (e.g. "breast cancer", "Parkinson disease")
intervention	string	Drug/device name (e.g. "pembrolizumab", "insulin glargine")
query	string	General keyword search
status	string	RECRUITING, COMPLETED, ANY, ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING, NOT_YET_RECRUITING, TERMINATED, WITHDRAWN
phase	string	PHASE1, PHASE2, PHASE3, PHASE4, EARLY_PHASE1, NA
sponsor_type	string	INDUSTRY, NIH, OTHER, FED
limit	integer	Max results (1–100, default 10)

Example MCP call:

{
  "name": "search_trials",
  "arguments": {
    "condition": "non-small cell lung cancer",
    "intervention": "pembrolizumab",
    "status": "RECRUITING",
    "phase": "PHASE3",
    "sponsor_type": "INDUSTRY",
    "limit": 20
  }
}

Example response:

[
  {
    "nct_id": "NCT05432100",
    "title": "Pembrolizumab Plus Chemotherapy in NSCLC",
    "status": "RECRUITING",
    "phase": "PHASE3",
    "condition": "Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma",
    "intervention": "Pembrolizumab",
    "sponsor": "Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC",
    "sponsor_type": "INDUSTRY",
    "start_date": "2024-03",
    "completion_date": "2027-12",
    "enrollment": 450,
    "brief_summary": "A randomized, double-blind Phase 3 trial...",
    "source": "clinicaltrials.gov"
  }
]

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get_trial

Retrieve full structured details for a single trial by NCT ID.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
nct_id	string	Yes	NCT identifier (e.g. "NCT05123456")

Example MCP call:

{
  "name": "get_trial",
  "arguments": {
    "nct_id": "NCT05432100"
  }
}

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get_trial_stats

Get aggregate statistics for a condition or intervention: counts by enrollment status, phase, and sponsor type. Ideal for landscape analysis.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
condition	string	Medical condition to analyze
intervention	string	Drug or intervention to analyze

Example MCP call:

{
  "name": "get_trial_stats",
  "arguments": {
    "condition": "Alzheimer disease"
  }
}

Example response:

{
  "total_count": 1847,
  "sample_size": 100,
  "by_status": {
    "RECRUITING": 42,
    "COMPLETED": 31,
    "ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING": 15,
    "NOT_YET_RECRUITING": 8,
    "TERMINATED": 4
  },
  "by_phase": {
    "PHASE2": 38,
    "PHASE3": 22,
    "PHASE1": 19,
    "PHASE4": 11,
    "NA": 10
  },
  "by_sponsor_type": {
    "INDUSTRY": 55,
    "OTHER": 30,
    "NIH": 15
  },
  "source": "clinicaltrials.gov"
}

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Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
condition	string	""	Medical condition to search
intervention	string	""	Drug or device name
query	string	""	General keyword
nctId	string	""	Single NCT ID lookup (bypasses other filters)
status	string	"ANY"	Enrollment status filter
phase	string	""	Clinical phase filter
sponsorType	string	""	Sponsor organization class
limit	integer	20	Max records (1–500)
serveMcp	boolean	false	Start MCP HTTP server on port 4321

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API Details

This actor queries the ClinicalTrials.gov v2 REST API (launched 2024):

• Base URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/api/v2
• Auth: None required
• Rate limits: None published; the actor uses a single connection per request
• Data freshness: Updated daily by NLM/NIH
• Coverage: 450,000+ trials from 220+ countries
• Data license: Public domain (U.S. government work)

The v2 API is significantly more structured than the deprecated v1 API, with properly nested JSON objects for identification, status, sponsors, eligibility, arms/interventions, and contacts.

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Common Use Cases

Finding Recruiting Trials for a Specific Drug Combination

{
  "condition": "triple negative breast cancer",
  "intervention": "olaparib",
  "status": "RECRUITING",
  "limit": 30
}

Competitive Pipeline Analysis — All Industry Phase 3 Trials

{
  "condition": "heart failure",
  "phase": "PHASE3",
  "sponsorType": "INDUSTRY",
  "limit": 100
}

NIH-Funded Research in Rare Diseases

{
  "condition": "Duchenne muscular dystrophy",
  "sponsorType": "NIH",
  "limit": 50
}

Single Trial Deep Dive

{
  "nctId": "NCT04280705"
}

Landscape Statistics for Grant Writing

{
  "condition": "pancreatic cancer",
  "serveMcp": false
}

Then call get_trial_stats via the MCP interface.

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Data Quality & Caveats

• Trial registration is mandatory for most interventional trials (per ICMJE requirements and FDA Amendments Act), so coverage of Phase 2–4 is high
• Observational studies are included; filter by phase=NA to focus on them
• Data accuracy depends on sponsor submissions; NLM performs quality checks but cannot verify all entries
• Phase field may be missing for older entries or device trials
• Enrollment counts may be estimates that differ from actual enrollment
• International trials are included; the ClinicalTrials.gov database is the world's largest, though WHO ICTRP covers additional registries

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Comparison to Alternatives

Source	Coverage	Auth	Cost	Structured API
ClinicalTrials.gov v2 (this actor)	450K+ trials worldwide	None	Free	Yes (v2)
clinicaltrials.gov v1 (deprecated)	Same	None	Free	Limited
WHO ICTRP	850K+ (includes 17 registries)	None	Free	Partial
Citeline/Pharma Intelligence	Curated, enriched	Subscription ~$50K/yr	Paid	Yes
GlobalData	Curated, enriched	Subscription ~$30K/yr	Paid	Yes
Medidata/Veeva Vault	Operational data	Customer only	Enterprise	Yes

This actor gives you free, structured, real-time access to the largest single clinical trial registry in the world — the same data that powers clinicaltrials.gov's search interface.

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Error Handling

The actor is designed to never crash. On API failures:

[
  {
    "_meta": {
      "error": "Connection timeout after 30s",
      "fallback_tried": true
    }
  }
]

On empty results:

[
  {
    "nct_id": "",
    "title": "No results found",
    "status": "",
    "sponsor": "",
    "source": "clinicaltrials.gov",
    "_meta": {
      "query": {"condition": "xyzxyz123", "status": "ANY"},
      "result_count": 0
    }
  }
]

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Pricing Context

This actor uses the ClinicalTrials.gov v2 API which is completely free and public domain. The Apify actor runtime cost is billed per compute unit (CU). A typical batch query of 50 trials uses approximately 0.01–0.05 CUs. MCP server mode uses roughly 0.1 CUs/hour while idle.

For high-volume commercial use cases (pulling 50,000+ trials or running 24/7 MCP server mode), consider Apify's business or enterprise plans.

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Support & Feedback

• Issues: File issues via the Apify Console actor page
• API docs: https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api
• MCP spec: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/
• Data source: https://clinicaltrials.gov

This actor is built and maintained as part of the AeternaOS SECC platform — sovereign executive command infrastructure for AI-native businesses.