💊 DailyMed FDA Drug Labels Scraper

🚀 Export FDA-approved drug prescribing information in seconds. Pull 30 structured fields per label from the NLM DailyMed catalog of 140,000+ Structured Product Labeling (SPL) records. No login, no PDF parsing, no XML wrangling.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-05-21 · 📊 30 fields per label · 💊 140,000+ SPL records · 🇺🇸 every FDA-approved drug · 🏷️ brand, generic, OTC, controlled

The DailyMed Drug Labels Scraper turns the NLM's official drug label database into clean, downloadable records. Each output includes brand name, generic name, manufacturer, dosage form, route, active and inactive ingredients with strengths, NDC codes, indications, dosage instructions, warnings, adverse reactions, contraindications, clinical pharmacology, storage, and the canonical link to the source SPL document. DailyMed is operated by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and reflects the FDA's authoritative prescribing information.

Coverage spans the entire FDA SPL corpus: prescription drugs, over-the-counter monograph products, controlled substances scheduled C-I through C-V, biosimilars, animal drugs, homeopathic products, and dietary supplements registered with the FDA. New labels and revisions appear in DailyMed within days of FDA action, and every run of this Actor pulls the current published version.

🎯 Target Audience	💡 Primary Use Cases
Clinical decision support teams, pharma SaaS builders, regulatory affairs, drug-safety analysts, telehealth platforms, formulary managers, e-prescribing vendors, medical AI developers	Drug label databases, NDC lookups, prescribing-info APIs, controlled-substance audits, ingredient cross-references, formulary enrichment, pharmacovigilance feeds

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📋 What the DailyMed Drug Labels Scraper does

Seven filtering workflows in a single run:

• 💊 Search by drug name. Brand, generic, or partial match (e.g. ibuprofen, lipitor, metformin).
• 🧪 Search by active ingredient. Pull every label that contains a given substance.
• 🏷️ Search by NDC. Resolve a specific National Drug Code to its full label.
• 🏭 Filter by manufacturer. Restrict output to a single labeler (Pfizer, Mylan, Teva, etc.).
• 💉 Filter by DEA schedule. Controlled substances C-I through C-V.
• ✅ Filter by marketing status. NDA, ANDA generics, OTC monographs, unapproved, dietary supplements.
• 📅 Filter by publish date. Only pull labels updated on or after a given date.

Each record includes identifiers (SetID, SPL version, NDC list), product attributes (brand, generic, dosage form, route, DEA schedule, marketing status), composition (active and inactive ingredients with strengths), clinical content (indications, dosage, warnings, adverse reactions, contraindications, precautions, clinical pharmacology, how supplied, storage), and direct links to the official SPL page and PDF.

💡 Why it matters: building a drug-label pipeline yourself means parsing HL7 v3 SPL XML, decoding LOINC section codes, joining NDC product-package hierarchies, and refreshing nightly. This Actor returns flat, ready-to-load records on every run.

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🎬 Full Demo

🚧 Coming soon: a 3-minute walkthrough showing how to go from sign-up to a clean drug-label dataset.

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⚙️ Input

Input	Type	Default	Behavior
maxItems	integer	10	Records to return. Free plan caps at 10, paid plan at 1,000,000.
drugName	string	"ibuprofen"	Brand or generic name search.
ingredient	string	""	Active ingredient substance name.
ndc	string	""	National Drug Code (e.g. 0093-1019-01).
manufacturer	string	""	Labeler or manufacturer name.
deaSchedule	string	""	One of C1, C2, C3, C4, C5.
marketingStatus	string	""	NDA, ANDA, OTC monograph, dietary supplement, etc.
publishedSince	string	""	YYYY-MM-DD lower bound on publish date.

Example: 25 ibuprofen labels.

{
    "maxItems": 25,
    "drugName": "ibuprofen"
}

Example: every Schedule II controlled substance from Mallinckrodt updated since 2024.

{
    "maxItems": 100,
    "manufacturer": "Mallinckrodt",
    "deaSchedule": "C2",
    "publishedSince": "2024-01-01"
}

⚠️ Good to Know: DailyMed publishes the FDA-approved prescribing information for each product. Inactive ingredients and packaging detail can vary by manufacturer revision. For dispensing or safety-critical use cases, always cross-check the live label on the official source.

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📊 Output

Each label record contains 30 fields. Download the dataset as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

🧾 Schema

Field	Type	Example
🆔 setId	string	"10b9a1fc-70d1-44ea-a6de-5c1943e8fbaa"
🔢 splVersion	number | null	1
🏷️ title	string	"ASPIRIN ENTERIC COATED, REGULAR STRENGTH (ASPIRIN) TABLET..."
💊 brandName	string | null	"Aspirin Enteric Coated, Regular Strength"
🧬 genericName	string | null	"Aspirin"
🏭 manufacturer	string | null	"Gendose Pharmaceuticals, LLC"
🏢 labelerName	string | null	"Pfizer Laboratories Div Pfizer Inc"
💉 dosageForm	string | null	"TABLET, DELAYED RELEASE"
🚪 route	string | null	"ORAL"
🚨 deaSchedule	string | null	"C2"
✅ marketingStatus	string | null	"OTC Monograph Drug"
📑 marketingCategory	string | null	"NDA"
🔖 ndcCodes	string[] | null	["77333-035","77333-035-25","77333-035-20"]
📦 packagingDescriptions	string[] | null	["BOTTLE, PLASTIC; 100 TABLETS"]
🧪 activeIngredients	object[] | null	[{"name":"ASPIRIN","strength":"325 mg"}]
🧂 inactiveIngredients	object[] | null	[{"name":"POWDERED CELLULOSE"}, {"name":"STARCH, CORN"}]
🎯 indications	string | null	"temporarily relieves minor aches and pains..."
📋 dosageAndAdministration	string | null	"adults and children 12 years and over: take 1 tablet..."
⚠️ warnings	string | null	"Reye's syndrome warning..."
💢 adverseReactions	string | null	"Most common adverse reactions..."
🚫 contraindications	string | null	"Known hypersensitivity to aspirin..."
🩺 precautions	string | null	"Ask a doctor before use if..."
🔬 clinicalPharmacology	string | null	"Mechanism of Action: aspirin..."
📦 howSupplied	string | null	"Bottles of 100 tablets..."
🏷️ storageAndHandling	string | null	"Store at 20-25°C..."
📅 publishedDate	string | null	"2024-08-12"
📆 effectiveDate	string | null	"2024-08-12"
🔗 splUrl	string | null	"https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=..."
📄 pdfUrl	string | null	"https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/.../spls/{setid}.pdf"
🕒 scrapedAt	ISO 8601	"2026-05-20T12:00:00.000Z"

📦 Sample records

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✨ Why choose this Actor

	Capability
💊	Full SPL coverage. 140,000+ FDA Structured Product Labeling records, refreshed continuously by NLM.
🔖	NDC join keys. Every record carries its full National Drug Code list for joins with claims, formulary, and inventory tables.
🧪	Ingredient-level detail. Active and inactive ingredients with strengths, ready for allergy and substitution logic.
🚨	Controlled-substance ready. DEA schedule field for C-I through C-V audits.
⚡	Fast. 10 labels in under 30 seconds, hundreds per minute on paid plans.
🌐	Authoritative source. NLM-maintained, FDA-sourced prescribing information.
🚫	No login. Works against public NLM data. No account or token required.

📊 Reliable drug-label data underpins every formulary, e-prescribing flow, drug-interaction checker, and safety report in modern healthcare.

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📈 How it compares to alternatives

Approach	Cost	Coverage	Refresh	Filters	Setup
⭐ DailyMed Scraper (this Actor)	$5 free credit, then pay-per-use	140,000+ SPL labels	Live per run	name, ingredient, NDC, mfr, DEA, status, date	⚡ 2 min
Commercial drug databases	$10k+/year	Curated subset	Vendor cadence	Many	🕒 Weeks
Direct NLM XML dumps	Free	Full corpus	Daily zip files	Build it yourself	🐢 Days
Hand-built scrapers	Engineering time	Often incomplete	Manual	Whatever you code	🛠️ Weeks

Pick this Actor when you want fresh FDA labels in flat JSON without standing up an SPL parser.

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🚀 How to use

1. 📝 Sign up. Create a free account with $5 credit (takes 2 minutes).
2. 🌐 Open the Actor. Go to the DailyMed FDA Drug Labels Scraper page on the Apify Store.
3. 🎯 Set input. Pick a drug name, ingredient, NDC, or manufacturer and set maxItems.
4. 🚀 Run it. Click Start and let the Actor collect your labels.
5. 📥 Download. Grab your results in the Dataset tab as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

⏱️ Total time from signup to downloaded dataset: 3-5 minutes. No coding required.

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💼 Business use cases

🏥 Clinical Decision Support Drug-interaction checks built on real label warnings Allergy screens using inactive ingredient lists Dose-form and route guards in e-prescribing UIs Patient handouts auto-generated from indication text	💊 Pharma SaaS & Formulary Formulary loaders keyed on NDC and SetID Generic-equivalent suggestions via ANDA filter OTC monograph cross-reference tables Manufacturer rollups for sourcing analysis
📑 Regulatory & Safety Controlled-substance audits by DEA schedule Label-version diffs for change-control workflows Pharmacovigilance feeds tied to adverse-reaction text Recall research with manufacturer + NDC pivots	🤖 Healthcare AI & Search RAG corpora for clinical question answering Drug-name normalization for transcription pipelines Indication-based search for triage chatbots Embedding stores keyed by SPL section

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🔌 Automating DailyMed Drug Labels Scraper

Control the scraper programmatically for scheduled runs and pipeline integrations:

• 🟢 Node.js. Install the apify-client NPM package.
• 🐍 Python. Use the apify-client PyPI package.
• 📚 See the Apify API documentation for full details.

The Apify Schedules feature lets you trigger this Actor on any cron interval. Nightly refreshes keep downstream drug-information systems in sync with the latest FDA label revisions.

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🌟 Beyond business use cases

Drug label data powers more than commercial tools. Researchers, educators, civic groups, and hobbyists all benefit from clean SPL records.

🎓 Research and academia Pharmacology coursework with structured ingredient data Health-economics studies on generic substitution Adverse-event mining for academic safety research Reproducible drug-label cohorts for thesis work	🎨 Personal and creative Medical content sites with authoritative label sources Drug-information visualisations and explainer videos Personal medication trackers tied to real labels Open-source patient-education projects
🤝 Non-profit and civic Patient-advocacy databases for low-cost medications Public-health dashboards on prescribing patterns Disaster-response stockpile audits by ingredient Investigative journalism on opioid or biosimilar markets	🧪 Experimentation Train medical NER models on structured indications Prototype agent pipelines that resolve NDC to label Benchmark drug-name normalisers on real titles Test formulary-loader workflows with live data

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🤖 Ask an AI assistant about this scraper

Open a ready-to-send prompt about this ParseForge actor in the AI of your choice:

• 💬 ChatGPT
• 🧠 Claude
• 🔍 Perplexity
• 🅒 Copilot

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

🧩 How does it work?

You provide a drug name, ingredient, NDC, manufacturer, or DEA schedule. The Actor queries DailyMed, fetches each matching label, parses the structured SPL document, and emits one clean record per label.

📏 How accurate is the data?

DailyMed is the U.S. National Library of Medicine's official repository of FDA-approved prescribing information. Records reflect the manufacturer's most recent labelling submission. For dispensing or safety-critical use, always verify against the live label on the source page.

🔁 How often is the dataset refreshed?

DailyMed receives new and revised SPL submissions continuously. Each run of this Actor pulls the current published version of every matching label.

💉 Does it include controlled substances?

Yes. Use the DEA Schedule filter to restrict to C-I through C-V. The field is also populated on every relevant record.

🌿 Does it include OTC and dietary supplements?

Yes. The Marketing Status filter covers OTC monograph products, dietary supplements, unapproved drugs, and homeopathic products in addition to NDA and ANDA prescription drugs.

🏥 Can I use this for clinical decision support?

The data is FDA-sourced and suitable as a foundation. Always layer your own clinical validation and verify against the live source for dispensing or treatment decisions.

💼 Can I use this data commercially?

DailyMed is U.S. government-published content and is generally free to redistribute. Review the NLM terms for your specific use case and respect any third-party trademark mentions in label content.

⏰ Can I schedule regular runs?

Yes. Use Apify Schedules to run this Actor nightly or weekly and keep a downstream drug-information database in sync with new FDA submissions.

💳 Do I need a paid Apify plan?

No. The free Apify plan covers testing and small runs (10 records per run). Paid plans lift the limit and unlock scheduling and concurrency.

🔁 What happens if a run fails?

Apify automatically retries transient errors. Partial datasets from failed runs are preserved, so you can inspect the log, adjust the input, and re-run without losing progress.

🆘 What if I need help?

Our support team is here to help. Contact us through the Apify platform or use the Tally form linked below.

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🔌 Integrate with any app

DailyMed Drug Labels Scraper connects to any cloud service via Apify integrations:

• Make - Automate multi-step workflows
• Zapier - Connect with 5,000+ apps
• Slack - Get run notifications in your channels
• Airbyte - Pipe label data into your warehouse
• GitHub - Trigger runs from commits and releases
• Google Drive - Export datasets straight to Sheets

You can also use webhooks to trigger downstream actions when a run finishes. Push fresh label data into your product backend, or alert your clinical team in Slack.

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🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form to request a new scraper, propose a custom data project, or report an issue.

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⚠️ Disclaimer: this Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the FDA, or any drug manufacturer. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Only publicly available drug label data is collected.