ClinicalTrials.gov Search (Official API)

Search and export clinical trials from ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. government registry of clinical studies. This Actor uses the official API v2 — no scraping, no API key.

Why this Actor

• Official API only. Calls https://clinicaltrials.gov/api/v2/studies. No page scraping.
• No API key required. Verified 2026-09-27: the endpoint returns HTTP 200 without any credentials.
• Public domain data. ClinicalTrials.gov is operated by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
• Flat output. The API returns deeply nested JSON; this Actor flattens it into one row per study.
• Polite. Requests are paced (default 5/second) and retried with backoff on 429/5xx.

What you get

One row per study:

Field	Description
nctId	Registry identifier, e.g. NCT00690963
url	Link to the study page
briefTitle / officialTitle	Study titles
overallStatus	RECRUITING, COMPLETED, TERMINATED, …
studyType	INTERVENTIONAL, OBSERVATIONAL, EXPANDED_ACCESS
phases	e.g. ["PHASE1","PHASE2"]
enrollmentCount	Target or actual enrollment
conditions	Conditions studied
leadSponsor	Lead sponsor name
startDate / primaryCompletionDate / completionDate	Key dates
lastUpdatePostDate	When the record was last updated
countries	Distinct countries across all study locations
locationCount	Number of study locations
interventions	Intervention names

Input

All fields are optional — combine what you need.

Input	Maps to	Example
searchTerm	query.term	lung cancer
condition	query.cond	breast cancer
intervention	query.intr	pembrolizumab
sponsor	query.spons	Pfizer
location	query.locn	Korea
statuses	filter.overallStatus	["RECRUITING"]
phases	advanced filter	["PHASE2","PHASE3"]
studyType	advanced filter	INTERVENTIONAL
maxResults	—	100

Pricing

Pay per event: one charge per returned study (result-item). Nothing is charged for studies you do not receive. The Actor also checks your run budget before starting and reduces the result count to fit, instead of stopping partway.

Use cases

• Pharma — competitor pipeline monitoring. Track competitor trial activity, study phases and endpoints across a therapeutic area.
• Biotech — protocol planning and feasibility. Benchmark active study designs, enrollment targets and comparator interventions.
• Investment — clinical catalysts and due diligence. Watch milestone dates, completion timelines and recruitment status changes for portfolio or target companies.
• Academic research — evidence synthesis. Pull registry records, geographic distribution and historical studies for systematic reviews.
• Regulatory and market intelligence — landscape mapping. Analyze global trial footprints, sponsor types and progression across indications.

What makes this different

1. Official API, not scraping. Queries the ClinicalTrials.gov REST API v2 directly, so it does not break when the website layout changes, and there is no terms-of-service gray area.
2. No credentials. Public-domain government data, no API key, no account approval.
3. Flat, ready-to-use output. Deeply nested government JSON becomes clean rows you can open in Excel or feed straight into a pipeline.

Running locally

pip install -r requirements.txt

# Verify the client against the live API (no key, no Apify account needed)
python -m tests.test_ctgov

# Run the Actor locally with charging in test mode (nothing is billed)
ACTOR_TEST_PAY_PER_EVENT=true python -m src.main

Layout

src/ctgov.py   API client + flattening. Pure Python, testable on its own.
src/main.py    Apify wiring only (input, dataset, charging).
tests/         Live checks against the real API.

Data source and attribution

Data comes from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NIH, NLM, or ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records are provided by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. Always confirm details against the study record itself.

What this Actor does not do

• It does not scrape web pages.
• It does not provide medical advice or interpret study results.
• It does not store or resell data — each run fetches fresh records from the official API.