💊 MyChem.info Drug Annotation Scraper

🚀 Turn any drug name into a clean annotation record in seconds. Resolve imatinib, aspirin, or a whole therapeutic area into DrugBank, ChEMBL, PubChem, UNII, ATC, formula, weight, indications, and mechanism, all from one keyless source.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-06-05 · 📊 23 fields per record · keyless public API · global drug and compound coverage

MyChem.info is the BioThings drug and chemical knowledge hub that aggregates DrugBank, ChEMBL, PubChem, DrugCentral, UNII, and more behind a single InChIKey-keyed API. This Actor queries MyChem.info, resolves each drug name or InChIKey to its annotation document, and returns a curated subset of the most useful fields instead of the full nested blob.

Coverage spans small molecules, biologics, and investigational compounds that carry a DrugBank annotation. You can look up drugs one by one, paste a batch of names or InChIKeys, or run a free-text query like a therapeutic area to pull back the best-matching annotated compounds.

🎯 Target Audience	💡 Primary Use Cases
Pharma and biotech researchers	Build a drug reference table across DrugBank, ChEMBL, and PubChem
Data scientists and bioinformaticians	Map drug names to standardized identifiers and ATC codes
Clinical and regulatory teams	Pull indications, mechanism classes, and approval status
Chemistry and cheminformatics teams	Collect formula, molecular weight, SMILES, and CAS numbers

📋 What the MyChem.info Drug Annotation Scraper does

• Resolves drug names (for example imatinib, metformin) or InChIKeys to their MyChem.info annotation.
• Runs a free-text search query and returns the best-matching drug-annotated compounds.
• Maps a curated subset of fields from DrugBank, ChEMBL, PubChem, DrugCentral, and UNII.
• Returns standardized identifiers, ATC codes, chemical properties, indications, and mechanism classes.
• Combines a search query and an explicit drug list in a single run when you want both.

🎬 Full Demo (🚧 Coming soon)

⚙️ Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
searchQuery	string	one of two	A free-text term such as a drug name or therapeutic area (for example leukemia, kinase).
drugList	array	one of two	Drug names or InChIKeys to resolve, one per entry.
maxItems	integer	no	Cap on how many records are produced. Free plan is limited to 10.

Provide a searchQuery, a drugList, or both. At least one is required.

{
  "drugList": ["imatinib", "dasatinib", "nilotinib", "aspirin", "metformin"],
  "maxItems": 10
}

{
  "searchQuery": "leukemia",
  "maxItems": 25
}

⚠️ Good to Know: Only compounds carrying a DrugBank annotation are returned, so very obscure or purely chemical entries may not resolve. A few fields such as ATC codes, PubChem CID, or approval year can be absent for a given drug when the upstream source has no value, and those come back as null rather than being faked.

📊 Output

Each record is one drug or compound annotation.

🏷 Field	Description
💊 drugName	Primary DrugBank name
🧬 inchikey	InChIKey, the MyChem.info record id
🆔 drugbankId	DrugBank accession (for example DB00619)
📚 drugbankAccessions	All DrugBank accession numbers
🧪 chemblId	ChEMBL molecule id
🔬 pubchemCid	PubChem compound id
🔖 unii	FDA UNII code
🧾 casNumber	CAS registry number
🏷 atcCodes	WHO ATC classification codes
🧫 moleculeType	Molecule type, for example Small molecule
📈 maxPhase	Highest development phase reached
📅 firstApprovalYear	Year of first approval
🗂 drugGroups	Status and route flags, for example approved, oral
⚗️ molecularFormula	Chemical formula
⚖️ molecularWeight	Molecular weight
🧩 smiles	SMILES structure string
🩺 primaryIndication	Lead indication
📋 indications	Indication list
🔬 mechanism	Mechanism and pharmacology classes
🌐 source	Which input produced the record
🔗 url	MyChem.info annotation endpoint
🕒 scrapedAt	Timestamp of collection
❌ error	Error message, null on success

Real sample records from a live run:

{
  "inchikey": "KTUFNOKKBVMGRW-UHFFFAOYSA-N",
  "drugName": "Imatinib",
  "drugbankId": "DB00619",
  "chemblId": "CHEMBL941",
  "pubchemCid": "5291",
  "unii": "BKJ8M8G5HI",
  "casNumber": "152459-95-5",
  "atcCodes": ["L01EA01"],
  "moleculeType": "Small molecule",
  "maxPhase": 4,
  "firstApprovalYear": 2001,
  "drugGroups": ["approved", "oral"],
  "molecularFormula": "C29H31N7O",
  "molecularWeight": 493.6,
  "primaryIndication": "Chronic Myelocytic Leukemia Accelerated Phase",
  "mechanism": ["Kinase Inhibitor", "tyrosine kinase inhibitors", "Protein Kinase Inhibitors"],
  "url": "https://mychem.info/v1/chem/KTUFNOKKBVMGRW-UHFFFAOYSA-N",
  "error": null
}

{
  "inchikey": "ZBNZXTGUTAYRHI-UHFFFAOYSA-N",
  "drugName": "Dasatinib",
  "drugbankId": "DB01254",
  "chemblId": "CHEMBL1421",
  "pubchemCid": "3062316",
  "unii": "X78UG0A0RN",
  "casNumber": "302962-49-8",
  "atcCodes": ["L01EA02"],
  "moleculeType": "Small molecule",
  "maxPhase": 4,
  "firstApprovalYear": 2006,
  "drugGroups": ["approved", "oral"],
  "molecularFormula": "C22H26ClN7O2S",
  "molecularWeight": 488,
  "primaryIndication": "Philadelphia Chromosome Positive Chronic Myelocytic Leukemia",
  "mechanism": ["tyrosine kinase inhibitors", "Protein Kinase Inhibitors"],
  "url": "https://mychem.info/v1/chem/ZBNZXTGUTAYRHI-UHFFFAOYSA-N",
  "error": null
}

{
  "inchikey": "HHZIURLSWUIHRB-UHFFFAOYSA-N",
  "drugName": "Nilotinib",
  "drugbankId": "DB04868",
  "chemblId": "CHEMBL255863",
  "pubchemCid": "644241",
  "unii": "F41401512X",
  "casNumber": "641571-10-0",
  "atcCodes": ["L01EA03"],
  "moleculeType": "Small molecule",
  "maxPhase": 4,
  "firstApprovalYear": 2007,
  "drugGroups": ["approved", "oral"],
  "molecularFormula": "C28H22F3N7O",
  "molecularWeight": 529.5,
  "primaryIndication": "Chronic Myelocytic Leukemia Accelerated Phase",
  "mechanism": ["Kinase Inhibitor", "tyrosine kinase inhibitors"],
  "url": "https://mychem.info/v1/chem/HHZIURLSWUIHRB-UHFFFAOYSA-N",
  "error": null
}

✨ Why choose this Actor

• One curated record instead of a deeply nested aggregation blob.
• Cross-references DrugBank, ChEMBL, PubChem, DrugCentral, and UNII in a single row.
• Accepts names, InChIKeys, and free-text queries interchangeably.
• Keyless public source, so no API account or token juggling on the source side.
• Null is honest, never invented, so your downstream joins stay clean.

📈 How it compares to alternatives

Approach	Identifiers	Indications and mechanism	Setup
This Actor	DrugBank, ChEMBL, PubChem, UNII, CAS, ATC in one row	Included	Paste names and run
Raw MyChem.info API	Available but deeply nested	Buried in nested blobs	Write your own parser
Manual DrugBank lookup	One source at a time	Partial	Slow and manual

🚀 How to use

1. Sign up for a free Apify account using this link.
2. Open the MyChem.info Drug Annotation Scraper.
3. Enter a searchQuery, a drugList of names or InChIKeys, or both.
4. Set maxItems if you want to cap the run, then start the Actor.
5. Collect your results from the dataset once the run finishes.

💼 Business use cases

Pharma competitive intelligence

Goal	How this helps
Track approved drug classes	Pull ATC codes and approval years across a target list
Benchmark mechanisms	Compare mechanism classes for a therapeutic area

Data engineering and reference data

Goal	How this helps
Build an identifier crosswalk	Map names to DrugBank, ChEMBL, PubChem, and UNII
Enrich an existing catalog	Add formula, weight, and CAS to your records

Clinical and regulatory research

Goal	How this helps
Review indications	Read primary and full indication lists per drug
Check development status	Use max phase and approval year as filters

Cheminformatics

Goal	How this helps
Seed a structure dataset	Collect SMILES and molecular properties
Standardize compound names	Resolve free text to canonical InChIKeys

🔌 Automating MyChem.info Drug Annotation Scraper

Connect runs to the tools your team already uses:

• Make and Zapier to trigger runs and route records into other apps.
• Slack to post a summary when a run finishes.
• Airbyte to load results into a warehouse.
• GitHub Actions to schedule recurring pulls.
• Google Drive to archive each run output for your team.

🌟 Beyond business use cases

• Research: assemble a tidy drug reference table for a literature review.
• Personal: look up the formula, weight, and class of a medication you are curious about.
• Non-profit: support patient education resources with standardized drug facts.
• Experimentation: prototype a chatbot that answers questions about drug identifiers.

🤖 Ask an AI assistant

Paste your results into ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Copilot and ask it to summarize mechanisms, group drugs by ATC class, or spot gaps in your reference table.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Is MyChem.info free to query? Yes, MyChem.info is a keyless public BioThings API. This Actor adds resolution, curation, and clean output on top.

What can I put in the drug list? Drug names such as imatinib or metformin, or InChIKeys such as KTUFNOKKBVMGRW-UHFFFAOYSA-N. Both are accepted in the same list.

What does the search query return? It returns the best-matching compounds that carry a DrugBank annotation, so you get usable drug records rather than packaging entries.

Why is a field sometimes null? The upstream source had no value for that drug. Nulls are kept as null and never invented.

Which sources are combined? DrugBank, ChEMBL, PubChem, DrugCentral, and UNII, all keyed by InChIKey inside MyChem.info.

How is a name resolved to a record? The Actor searches MyChem.info for the name among drug-annotated compounds and selects the top match.

Can I pull a whole therapeutic area? Yes, use a search query like leukemia or kinase and raise maxItems to collect more compounds.

Does it return chemical structure? Yes, each record includes a SMILES string plus molecular formula and weight when available.

What is the InChIKey used for? It is the stable record id in MyChem.info and a portable key for joining across chemical datasets.

How many records can I get? Free plan runs are limited to 10. Paid plans can collect up to 1,000,000.

🔌 Integrate with any app

Every run writes to a structured dataset you can pull through the Apify API or connect to your stack with the integrations above.

🔗 Recommended Actors

• deps.dev Package Insights Scraper for open source package metadata.
• Libraries.io Scraper for cross-ecosystem library data.
• CRAN R Packages Scraper for the R package universe.

💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection.

🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form

⚠️ Disclaimer: independent tool, not affiliated with MyChem.info or BioThings. Only publicly available data collected.