# Clinical Trial Monitor (`arched_friend/clinical-trial-monitor`) Actor

Track clinical trials on ClinicalTrials.gov by condition, sponsor, drug or location. Returns phase, status, enrollment, sites and sponsor for every study, and flags new trials, status changes and posted results since your last run.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/arched\_friend/clinical-trial-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [Peach O](https://apify.com/arched_friend) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, News
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.00 / 1,000 study returneds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Clinical Trial Monitor: Track Trials, Sponsors and Status Changes

Search ClinicalTrials.gov by condition, sponsor, drug or country and get one flat row per trial — phase, status, enrolment, sponsor, sites and countries. On every run after the first you also get what moved: new trials, status changes, and results going up.

Built for teams who need to know what a competitor is running before it reaches a press release.

### How it works

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    A["Condition, sponsor<br/>or drug"] --> B["ClinicalTrials.gov v2 API"]
    B --> C["One flat row per trial"]
    C --> D{"Compared to last run"}
    D -->|not seen| E["new-study"]
    D -->|status moved| F["status-changed"]
    D -->|results up| G["results-posted"]
    E --> H[("Trial feed")]
    F --> H
    G --> H
```

No scraping and no API key. This reads the registry's own v2 API, so it does not break when the site is restyled and it needs no proxy or browser.

### Built for

- **Competitive intelligence** in pharma and biotech, watching a rival's pipeline
- **CRO and site business development** finding sponsors who are recruiting now
- **Patient recruitment** looking for open trials by condition and country
- **Investors and analysts** tracking a phase 3 towards readout
- **Medical affairs and researchers** keeping a disease area under watch

### Input

```json
{
  "condition": "melanoma",
  "sponsorClasses": ["INDUSTRY"],
  "phases": ["PHASE2", "PHASE3"],
  "recruitingOnly": true,
  "onlyChanged": true
}
```

| Setting | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| `condition` | The disease area — the main search |
| `sponsor` | Watch one company's pipeline |
| `intervention` | A drug, device or procedure name |
| `location` | Country, state or city with a site |
| `statuses` | Limit to recruitment statuses at the source |
| `phases` / `sponsorClasses` / `countries` | Narrow the result set |
| `minEnrollment` | Drop the very small studies |
| `recruitingOnly` | Only trials open to enrolment |
| `onlyChanged` | Return nothing on a quiet run |
| `timeBudgetSecs` | How long a run may spend paging before returning what it has |

### Output

```json
{
  "nctId": "NCT06104345",
  "title": "Nivolumab and Cabozantinib in Advanced Melanoma",
  "status": "RECRUITING",
  "isRecruiting": true,
  "phases": ["PHASE2"],
  "studyType": "INTERVENTIONAL",
  "enrollment": 150,
  "enrollmentType": "ESTIMATED",
  "leadSponsor": "National Cancer Institute (NCI)",
  "sponsorClass": "NIH",
  "conditions": ["Metastatic Melanoma", "Unresectable Melanoma"],
  "interventions": [{ "type": "DRUG", "name": "Nivolumab" }],
  "siteCount": 42,
  "recruitingSites": 31,
  "countries": ["United States"],
  "lastUpdateDate": "2026-09-21",
  "hasResults": false,
  "url": "https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06104345",
  "changeType": "status-changed",
  "previousStatus": "NOT_YET_RECRUITING",
  "checkedAt": "2026-09-21T18:25:07.330Z"
}
```

**A trial changing status is the point.** A competitor's phase 3 going from `RECRUITING` to `COMPLETED` is news, and a monitor that only reported trials it had never seen before would miss it entirely. Status moves come back as `status-changed` with the previous value, results appearing come back as `results-posted`.

`recruitingSites` is often the more useful number than `siteCount`: a trial with 42 registered sites and 3 actually recruiting is not the same opportunity.

### Turn it into a competitor alert

```json
{
  "condition": "non-small cell lung cancer",
  "sponsorClasses": ["INDUSTRY"],
  "onlyChanged": true
}
```

Schedule it daily. The first run records the landscape without alerting; every run after returns only trials that started, moved or reported.

### Run it as an API

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/arched_friend~clinical-trial-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "condition": "alzheimer disease",
    "phases": ["PHASE3"],
    "recruitingOnly": true
  }'
```

### Pricing

You pay $0.002 for each trial returned. A run that finds nothing new costs nothing.

| Watching a disease area daily | Monthly cost |
| --- | --- |
| Checking the registry by hand | hours every week |
| Citeline, Evaluate and similar | $10,000 to $100,000 per year |
| This Actor | around $3 per month at 50 changed trials a day |

### Common questions

**Why did the first run return everything?** A first run has no baseline, so alerting on the whole registry would be noise. Those rows are labelled `first-run`; the run after is when `new-study` and `status-changed` start meaning something.

**Why is `enrollment` sometimes null?** Because the sponsor has not published a target. It is reported as null rather than guessed, and a minimum-enrolment filter deliberately keeps those rows rather than hiding real trials behind a missing number.

**Is `isRecruiting` ever null?** Yes — when the registry publishes no overall status. That is reported as null rather than as a confident `false`, because "we do not know" and "not recruiting" are different answers.

**Does it cover trials outside the US?** Yes. ClinicalTrials.gov registers trials worldwide; filter with `countries` or `location` for a specific region.

**Do I need an API key?** No. The registry API is open and keyless.

### Related products

- **FDA Recall Monitor** for what happens to products after approval
- **Regulation Change Monitor** for the FDA rules that shape trial design
- **SEC Filing Monitor** for the financial disclosures that follow a readout
- **Federal Contract Finder** for NIH and BARDA money going to the same sponsors

# Actor input Schema

## `condition` (type: `string`):

The disease area to search, for example melanoma or type 2 diabetes.

## `sponsor` (type: `string`):

Optional. Limit to one organisation, for example Merck or Pfizer. Use this to watch a competitor's pipeline.

## `intervention` (type: `string`):

Optional. A drug, device or procedure name, for example pembrolizumab.

## `terms` (type: `string`):

Optional. Free text searched across the whole record.

## `location` (type: `string`):

Optional. A country, state or city where the trial has a site, for example Germany.

## `statuses` (type: `array`):

Limit to these statuses. Leave empty for all of them.

## `phases` (type: `array`):

Keep only these trial phases. Leave empty for all.

## `sponsorClasses` (type: `array`):

Keep only trials run by these kinds of organisation. Industry means a company rather than a university or government body.

## `countries` (type: `array`):

Keep only trials that have a site in one of these countries, spelled as the registry spells them, for example United States.

## `minEnrollment` (type: `integer`):

Drop trials smaller than this. Trials that publish no target are always kept, because a missing number is not a small one.

## `recruitingOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only trials recruiting, not yet recruiting, or enrolling by invitation.

## `titleExcludes` (type: `array`):

Drop trials whose title or conditions contain any of these, one per line.

## `onlyChanged` (type: `boolean`):

Return nothing on a quiet run. Turn this on for a scheduled search so you only hear about new trials, status changes and posted results.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

The most trials to pull in one run, most recently updated first.

## `requestTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

How long to wait for a single page of results before giving up on it.

## `timeBudgetSecs` (type: `integer`):

How long the run may spend paging before it returns what it has. Keeps a scheduled run predictable.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "condition": "melanoma",
  "statuses": [],
  "phases": [],
  "sponsorClasses": [],
  "minEnrollment": 0,
  "recruitingOnly": false,
  "onlyChanged": false,
  "maxResults": 200,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 45,
  "timeBudgetSecs": 180
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `studies` (type: `string`):

One row per trial with its phase, status, sponsor, enrollment, conditions, interventions, sites and countries, plus what changed since the last run.

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

Counts of new trials, status changes and posted results, a breakdown by phase and sponsor class, and the sponsors running the most studies.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "condition": "melanoma"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("arched_friend/clinical-trial-monitor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "condition": "melanoma" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("arched_friend/clinical-trial-monitor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "condition": "melanoma"
}' |
apify call arched_friend/clinical-trial-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,arched_friend/clinical-trial-monitor"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/v8hhzNY9f42dhl1be/builds/77JIu2UhAL7cETc2M/openapi.json