# PubMed Drug Tracker (`gochujang/pubmed-drug-tracker`) Actor

Search PubMed for medical research papers by drug name, disease, or keyword. Returns title, abstract, authors, journal, publication date, and MeSH terms. Track clinical research, drug efficacy studies, and medical literature trends using the free NCBI E-utilities API. No API key required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/gochujang/pubmed-drug-tracker.md
- **Developed by:** [Hojun Lee](https://apify.com/gochujang) (community)
- **Categories:** Education, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 paper fetcheds

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?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## PubMed Drug Tracker

**PubMed Drug Tracker** searches **NCBI PubMed** for peer-reviewed medical research by drug name, disease, or keyword — returning structured records with title, abstract, authors, journal, MeSH terms, DOI, and AI-derived signals (significance, commercial relevance). Free NCBI E-utilities API, no registration needed. $0.001/paper.

Clinical research outcomes are priced into biotech stocks months before mainstream coverage catches them. Phase 3 trial results are public on PubMed the day they publish — this actor structures them for automated ingestion so you never miss a commercially relevant result.

***

### Why use PubMed Drug Tracker?

1. **Biotech investment research** — Filter for Phase 3/4 `commercial_relevance: "high"` papers on your watchlist compounds. `significance_signal: "positive"` papers often precede catalyst events.
2. **Drug efficacy monitoring** — Track ongoing clinical trial literature for a specific drug (e.g., semaglutide, lecanemab, tirzepatide) over time. Set `yearFrom` to your coverage start.
3. **Competitive intelligence** — Monitor what the literature says about competitor pipeline drugs. Multiple positive RCTs = validated competitive threat.
4. **Medical literature review pipeline** — Build automated literature review workflows. Pull 200 papers per query, filter by MeSH terms and study type, feed into your analysis system.
5. **Trending research topic tracking** — Aggregate MeSH terms across a query to understand which sub-topics are getting the most research attention in a disease area.

***

### How to use

1. Open the actor on Apify Store and click **Try for free**.
2. Set `searchQuery` to your drug name, disease, or keyword (e.g. `"semaglutide weight loss"`, `"CRISPR cancer"`, `"mRNA vaccine efficacy"`).
3. Set `studyTypes` to focus on specific evidence levels (default: clinical trials and RCTs).
4. Set `yearFrom` to filter recent research.
5. Click **Start**. Returns structured paper records.

***

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `searchQuery` | string | `"semaglutide weight loss"` | Drug name, disease, or medical keyword |
| `maxResults` | integer | `25` | Maximum papers to return (1–200) |
| `yearFrom` | integer | `2020` | Only include papers published from this year |
| `studyTypes` | string\[] | `["clinical_trial","randomized_controlled_trial"]` | Study type filters |

**Study type values:**

| Value | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `clinical_trial` | Phase 1–4 clinical trials |
| `randomized_controlled_trial` | RCTs (highest evidence level) |
| `review` | Systematic reviews and literature reviews |
| `meta_analysis` | Statistical pooling of multiple studies |

Leave `studyTypes` as `[]` to return all study types (including case reports, observational studies, basic science).

***

### Output

```json
{
  "pmid": "38734512",
  "title": "Semaglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in obesity...",
  "abstract": "BACKGROUND: Obesity is associated with...",
  "authors": ["Lincoff AM", "Brown-Frandsen K", "Colhoun HM"],
  "journal": "New England Journal of Medicine",
  "publication_date": "2023-Dec",
  "year": 2023,
  "study_type": "randomized_controlled_trial",
  "mesh_terms": ["Obesity", "Semaglutide", "Cardiovascular Diseases"],
  "doi": "10.1056/NEJMoa2307563",
  "paper_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38734512/",
  "abstract_word_count": 312,
  "has_results": true,
  "significance_signal": "positive",
  "commercial_relevance": "high",
  "fetched_at": "2026-09-02T10:00:00Z"
}
```

#### Intelligence signal fields

| Field | Values | Description |
|-------|--------|-------------|
| `has_results` | boolean | Abstract contains "results", "findings", or "outcomes" |
| `significance_signal` | `positive` / `negative` / `neutral` | Detects efficacy framing (positive = drug showed benefit) |
| `commercial_relevance` | `high` / `medium` / `low` | Phase 3/4 = high; Phase 1/2 = medium; basic science = low |

***

### Cost estimation

**Pay-Per-Event: $0.001 per paper returned.**

| Use case | Papers | Estimated cost |
|----------|--------|----------------|
| Quick drug scan (25 papers) | 25 | $0.025/run |
| Deep literature review (200 papers) | 200 | $0.20/run |
| Weekly monitoring (50 papers) | 50 | $0.05/week |
| Daily trial result alerts (10 papers) | 10 | $0.01/day |

***

### Example queries

| Query | Use case |
|-------|----------|
| `semaglutide diabetes` | GLP-1 weight-loss drug RCT outcomes |
| `CRISPR cancer` | Gene-editing oncology research |
| `mRNA vaccine efficacy` | Vaccine clinical trials |
| `tirzepatide obesity` | GLP-1/GIP agonist competition |
| `Alzheimer lecanemab` | Amyloid-targeting drug trials |
| `ketamine depression` | Novel antidepressant research |

***

### FAQ

**Does it require an NCBI API key?**
No — the actor uses NCBI E-utilities' free unauthenticated tier (3 requests/second). A 0.4s delay between batches keeps it within rate limits. For very high-volume use (thousands of papers/day), consider registering for a free NCBI API key.

**How accurate is `significance_signal`?**
It uses keyword heuristics on the abstract text — not AI. It detects "significant improvement", "statistically significant", "did not meet primary endpoint", etc. Accurate for clear-cut cases; may miss nuanced neutral results. Always read the full abstract to verify.

**How current is PubMed data?**
PubMed adds new records within days of a journal's publication date. Ahead-of-print (epub) articles appear immediately. The actor queries whatever is live at run time.

**Can I search for multiple drugs at once?**
Each run takes one `searchQuery`. For multi-drug monitoring, run the actor with different queries or use PubMed's boolean syntax: `"semaglutide OR tirzepatide"`.

***

### Related actors

- [Startup Funding Tracker](https://apify.com/gochujang/startup-funding-tracker) — Monitor biotech fundraising rounds to complement clinical research
- [Crypto Regulation Tracker](https://apify.com/gochujang/crypto-regulation-tracker) — Regulatory intelligence for another data-driven research domain
- [SPAC Tracker](https://apify.com/gochujang/spac-tracker) — Track biotech SPACs that may be taking drug-development companies public

### Feedback

If this actor is useful for your biotech research, a quick review helps others find it: [Leave a review on Apify Store](https://apify.com/gochujang/pubmed-drug-tracker#reviews)

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQuery` (type: `string`):

Drug name, disease, or medical keyword (e.g. 'semaglutide diabetes', 'CRISPR cancer')

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

Maximum papers to return (1-200)

## `yearFrom` (type: `integer`):

Filter papers published from this year

## `studyTypes` (type: `array`):

Filter by study type: clinical\_trial, review, meta\_analysis, randomized\_controlled\_trial

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQuery": "semaglutide weight loss",
  "maxResults": 25,
  "yearFrom": 2020,
  "studyTypes": [
    "clinical_trial",
    "randomized_controlled_trial"
  ]
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("gochujang/pubmed-drug-tracker").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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("gochujang/pubmed-drug-tracker").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 '{}' |
apify call gochujang/pubmed-drug-tracker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,gochujang/pubmed-drug-tracker"
        }
    }
}

```

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/qRGeo7DPqSs2R5qpc/builds/BcwCPd7s4zBPaYVKh/openapi.json