FDA Drug Shortages Monitor

🏥 Stay ahead of drug shortages — Automatically monitor the FDA Drug Shortages Database and receive instant alerts when new shortages appear or existing ones change status.

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What does this Actor do?

This Actor scrapes the official FDA Drug Shortages Database and provides:

• ✅ Real-time monitoring of FDA drug shortage announcements
• ✅ Smart change detection — Only alerts you when something changes
• ✅ Custom watch lists — Filter by specific drugs you care about
• ✅ AI-powered analysis — Get severity scores, substitutes, and patient impact assessments
• ✅ Multiple notification options — Email, webhooks, Slack, and more
• ✅ Stateful tracking — Remembers previous runs to detect new shortages and status changes

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Why use this Actor?

Drug shortages can critically impact patient care. Whether you're a:

• 🏥 Hospital pharmacist tracking supply chain issues
• 💊 Pharmacy manager planning inventory
• 🔬 Healthcare researcher monitoring drug availability trends
• 📰 Journalist covering pharmaceutical news
• 🏢 Pharmaceutical company tracking competitor supply issues

This Actor gives you automated, reliable monitoring without manual checking.

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Features

🔍 Smart Change Detection

The Actor maintains state between runs and only alerts you when:

• New drug shortage is added to the FDA list
• Status changes (e.g., "Currently in Shortage" → "Resolved")

🎯 Custom Watch Lists

Don't want alerts for every drug? Specify a comma-separated list of drug names to monitor:

Insulin, Adderall, Ozempic, Amoxicillin

The Actor will only track and alert on drugs matching your keywords (case-insensitive).

🤖 AI-Powered Analysis (Optional)

Enable AI analysis to get clinical insights for each new shortage:

Insight	Description
Severity Score	1-10 rating of shortage impact
Severity Explanation	Why this shortage matters
Potential Substitutes	Alternative medications to consider
Patient Impact	How this affects patient care

AI analysis uses OpenRouter via Apify's integration, supporting models like Claude, GPT-4, Llama, and more.

📧 Flexible Notifications

Multiple ways to receive alerts:

Method	Description
Email	Direct email via Apify's send-mail
Webhook	POST to any URL (Slack, Zapier, custom)
Apify Integrations	Built-in email, Slack, webhook integrations

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Input Configuration

Field	Type	Required	Description
drugNames	string	No	Comma-separated drug keywords to monitor. Leave empty for all drugs.
email	string	No	Email address for alerts
webhookUrl	string	No	Custom webhook URL for notifications
enableAiAnalysis	boolean	No	Enable AI-powered shortage analysis (default: false)
aiModel	string	No	OpenRouter model for AI analysis (default: anthropic/claude-opus-4.5)

Example Input

{
    "drugNames": "Insulin, Adderall, Ozempic",
    "email": "pharmacy-alerts@hospital.org",
    "enableAiAnalysis": true,
    "aiModel": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4"
}

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Output

Dataset Output

Each run produces a dataset with all tracked drug shortages:

{
    "drugName": "Insulin Lispro Injection",
    "status": "Currently in Shortage",
    "reason": "",
    "url": "https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/drugshortages/dsp_ActiveIngredientDetails.cfm?AI=Insulin%20Lispro%20Injection",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-01-17T14:30:00.000Z",
    "aiAnalysis": {
        "severity_score": 8,
        "severity_explanation": "Insulin is a life-sustaining medication for diabetic patients. Shortage can lead to serious health complications.",
        "potential_substitutes": ["Insulin Aspart", "Insulin Glargine", "Regular Insulin"],
        "patient_impact": "High risk for diabetic patients who require daily insulin injections. May cause delayed treatment or suboptimal glycemic control."
    }
}

Key-Value Store Output

The Actor saves alert data to LATEST_ALERT key for use with Apify Integrations:

{
    "subject": "FDA Alert: 3 New Shortage(s), 1 Status Change(s)",
    "html": "...",
    "text": "...",
    "newShortages": [...],
    "statusChanges": [...],
    "totalShortages": 127,
    "timestamp": "2026-01-17T14:30:00.000Z",
    "fdaUrl": "https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/drugshortages/default.cfm"
}

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How to Set Up Scheduled Monitoring

1. Create a Scheduled Task

1. Go to your Actor in Apify Console
2. Click "Create Task"
3. Configure your input (drug watch list, notifications)
4. Go to "Schedules" tab
5. Add a schedule (e.g., every 6 hours: 0 */6 * * *)

2. Set Up Notifications (Recommended)

For reliable notifications, use Apify Integrations:

1. Go to your Task → "Integrations" tab
2. Add Email, Slack, or Webhook integration
3. Configure to trigger on "Actor run succeeded"
4. Use the LATEST_ALERT key-value store data in your template

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Example Use Cases

Hospital Pharmacy Monitoring

{
    "drugNames": "Insulin, Epinephrine, Morphine, Fentanyl, Propofol",
    "enableAiAnalysis": true,
    "aiModel": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4"
}

General Shortage Tracking

{
    "drugNames": "",
    "webhookUrl": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/YOUR/SLACK/WEBHOOK"
}

Specific Drug Watch

{
    "drugNames": "Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro",
    "email": "supply-chain@pharma.com",
    "enableAiAnalysis": true
}

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Email Alert Preview

When changes are detected, you'll receive a beautifully formatted HTML email:

📧 Subject: FDA Alert: 2 New Shortage(s), 1 Status Change(s)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

NEW DRUG SHORTAGES (2)

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Insulin Lispro Injection                        │
│ Status: Currently in Shortage                   │
│                                                 │
│ 🤖 AI Analysis                                  │
│ Severity: 8/10 (Critical)                       │
│ Substitutes: Insulin Aspart, Insulin Glargine   │
│ Patient Impact: High risk for diabetic patients │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

STATUS CHANGES (1)

│ Drug Name          │ Previous    │ Current  │
├────────────────────┼─────────────┼──────────┤
│ Amoxicillin Caps   │ In Shortage │ Resolved │

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

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Technical Details

Data Source

• URL: FDA Drug Shortages Database
• Update Frequency: FDA updates the list as information becomes available
• Recommended Scrape Interval: Every 4-6 hours

State Persistence

The Actor uses a named Key-Value Store (fda-drug-shortages-state) to persist state between runs. This ensures:

• Change detection works across Actor restarts
• State survives even if default storage is cleared
• Reliable tracking over long periods

AI Analysis

AI analysis uses OpenRouter via Apify's integration:

• Requires running the Apify OpenRouter Actor
• Supports 100+ AI models (Claude, GPT-4, Llama, Mistral, etc.)
• Configurable model selection via aiModel input

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Limitations

• Only monitors the FDA Drug Shortages Database (US FDA)
• Does not provide real-time streaming (poll-based monitoring)
• AI analysis requires Apify OpenRouter integration
• Email notifications require apify/send-mail permissions

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Support & Feedback

Have questions or suggestions?

• 📧 Open an issue on the Actor's GitHub repository
• 💬 Reach out via Apify Discord community
• ⭐ Star this Actor if you find it useful!

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Changelog

v1.0.0

• Initial release
• FDA Drug Shortages scraping
• Watch list filtering
• Change detection (new shortages + status changes)
• Email and webhook notifications
• AI-powered shortage analysis
• Stateful monitoring with named Key-Value Store

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