💊 OpenFDA Drug Adverse Events & Recall Scraper

🚀 Export FDA drug adverse events, drug labels, and food recalls in seconds. No API key, no auth, zero configuration required.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-05-21 · 📊 11 fields per drug-event record · 20M+ adverse event reports · US FDA coverage, global reporters

The OpenFDA Scraper collects structured data from the openFDA public API — the US Food and Drug Administration's official open data platform. No credentials or API keys needed. Data is sourced directly from FDA's FAERS (FDA Adverse Event Reporting System), DailyMed drug labels database, and the FDA enforcement database.

Supports three datasets: drug adverse events (~20 million reports), drug labels (structured prescribing information), and food enforcement recalls (Class I, II, and III). Every record is normalized and ready for download in CSV, JSON, or Excel.

Coverage: All adverse event reports submitted to FDA globally. Reporters from 100+ countries. Drug adverse events date back to the 1960s with the most active period from 2004 onwards. Food enforcement recalls cover ongoing and terminated actions.

Who uses this	Why
Pharmacovigilance teams	Monitor adverse drug reaction trends
Healthcare researchers	Study drug safety signals across demographics
Regulatory affairs analysts	Track FDA enforcement actions and recalls
Data scientists	Build ML models on drug-reaction relationships
Medical journalists	Investigate drug safety stories with data
Public health agencies	Monitor population-level drug event patterns

📋 What the OpenFDA Scraper does

• Fetches drug adverse event reports from FDA FAERS with full patient demographics and reaction terms
• Exports drug label data including active ingredients, warnings, and dosage instructions
• Retrieves food enforcement recalls with classification, firm details, and distribution patterns
• Supports free-text search queries using openFDA's Lucene-based search syntax
• Filters drug events by date range (start/end date)
• Paginates automatically through up to 25,000 results per query window
• Normalizes dates to ISO format, maps coded fields (sex, serious outcome) to human-readable values

💡 Why it matters: The FDA receives over 1 million adverse event reports per year. This actor gives researchers, analysts, and developers programmatic access to 20+ million historical reports without writing a single line of code.

🎬 Full Demo

🚧 Coming soon

⚙️ Input

Field	Type	Description	Default
maxItems	integer	Maximum records to collect (free: 10, paid: up to 1,000,000)	10
dataType	select	Dataset to query: drug_events, drug_labels, or food_enforcement	drug_events
search	string	Optional openFDA search expression (Lucene syntax)	(blank = all)
startDate	string	Filter drug events on/after this date (YYYY-MM-DD)	(blank)
endDate	string	Filter drug events on/before this date (YYYY-MM-DD)	(blank)

Example 1 - Basic drug adverse events:

{
    "maxItems": 100,
    "dataType": "drug_events"
}

Example 2 - Headache reactions in 2023:

{
    "maxItems": 500,
    "dataType": "drug_events",
    "search": "patient.reaction.reactionmeddrapt:\"headache\"",
    "startDate": "2023-01-01",
    "endDate": "2023-12-31"
}

⚠️ Good to Know: The openFDA API caps pagination at 25,000 records per query window. To collect more, use the search parameter to narrow results to a specific drug, reaction, or date range and run multiple focused queries.

📊 Output

Field	Type	Description
🔑 safetyReportId	string	Unique FDA safety report identifier
📅 receiveDate	string	ISO date when FDA received the report
⚠️ serious	string	Whether the event was serious: yes or no
💀 seriousnessDeath	string	Death outcome: yes, no, or null
🧑 patientAge	string	Patient age with unit (e.g. 45 years) — null if not reported
🚻 patientSex	string	male, female, or unknown
🔬 reactions	array	MedDRA adverse reaction terms
💊 drugs	array	Drug names involved (first 5)
🌍 reportCountry	string	ISO country code of the primary reporter
🕒 scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp when the record was collected
❌ error	string	Error message if record failed — always last

Sample records (real output):

[
  {
    "safetyReportId": "5801206-7",
    "receiveDate": "2008-07-07",
    "serious": "yes",
    "seriousnessDeath": "yes",
    "patientAge": "26 years",
    "patientSex": "male",
    "reactions": ["DRUG ADMINISTRATION ERROR", "OVERDOSE"],
    "drugs": ["DURAGESIC-100"],
    "reportCountry": "CANADA",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-21T22:56:46.240Z",
    "error": null
  },
  {
    "safetyReportId": "10003300",
    "receiveDate": "2014-03-06",
    "serious": "yes",
    "seriousnessDeath": null,
    "patientAge": "77 years",
    "patientSex": "female",
    "reactions": ["Vomiting", "Diarrhoea", "Arthralgia", "Headache"],
    "drugs": ["BONIVA"],
    "reportCountry": "US",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-21T22:56:46.241Z",
    "error": null
  },
  {
    "safetyReportId": "10003301",
    "receiveDate": "2014-02-28",
    "serious": "yes",
    "seriousnessDeath": null,
    "patientAge": null,
    "patientSex": "female",
    "reactions": ["Dyspepsia", "Renal impairment"],
    "drugs": ["IBUPROFEN"],
    "reportCountry": "US",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-21T22:56:46.241Z",
    "error": null
  }
]

Note on patientAge: This field is null when the reporter did not include patient age. This is expected - FDA does not require age in adverse event reports.

✨ Why choose this Actor

Feature	Details
🔓 No auth required	Public openFDA API - zero setup
📊 3 datasets	Drug events, drug labels, food enforcement
🔍 Full search support	Lucene syntax for targeted queries
📅 Date range filtering	Narrow drug events by receive date
🗺 Normalized output	Coded values mapped to readable strings
💊 Multi-drug support	Captures all drugs per adverse event
🌍 Global data	Reports from 100+ countries
⚡ Fast	Plain fetch, no browser overhead

📈 How it compares to alternatives

	OpenFDA Scraper	Manual API calls	Custom Python script
Setup time	Instant	Hours	Days
Pagination handled	Yes	Manual	Manual
Field normalization	Yes	No	Custom
Apify integrations	Yes	No	No
Schedule & monitor	Yes	No	Manual
CSV / Excel export	Yes	No	Custom

🚀 How to use

1. Create a free account w/ $5 credit on Apify
2. Go to the OpenFDA Scraper page
3. Click Try for free
4. Set dataType to drug_events, drug_labels, or food_enforcement
5. Optionally add a search query and date range
6. Set maxItems to the number of records you need
7. Click Start and wait for the run to complete
8. Download your dataset in CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML

💼 Business use cases

Pharmacovigilance and Drug Safety Monitoring

Track adverse events for specific drugs over time. Search for reactions by drug name (patient.drug.medicinalproduct:"ASPIRIN") and monitor reporting trends. Identify drugs with increasing death outcomes or serious reaction rates.

Regulatory Compliance and Recall Tracking

Use food_enforcement to monitor active FDA recalls. Filter by classification:"Class I" for the highest-risk recalls. Integrate with Slack or email via Apify webhooks to get alerts on new enforcement actions in your product category.

Medical Research and Academic Studies

Export large cohorts for epidemiological analysis. Cross-reference patient demographics (age, sex, country) with reaction profiles. The 20M+ record dataset enables population-level drug safety studies without direct FDA database access.

Competitive Intelligence for Pharma

Monitor adverse event reports for competitor drugs. Track changes in reporting rates over time. Compare safety profiles between drugs in the same therapeutic class using targeted search queries.

🔌 Automating OpenFDA Scraper

Connect this actor to your existing workflows with no code:

• Make (Integromat): Schedule weekly runs and push results to Google Sheets or a database
• Zapier: Trigger email alerts when new recall records appear for specific firms
• Slack: Route FDA enforcement alerts to a compliance channel automatically
• Google Sheets: Export results directly into a shared team spreadsheet for analysis
• Webhooks: Receive a POST notification the moment each run completes

Use Apify Schedules to run this actor automatically on a cron schedule.

🌟 Beyond business use cases

Academic Research

Epidemiologists and pharmacologists can use the full adverse event dataset to study drug interactions, demographic risk factors, and reporting patterns across countries. The MedDRA reaction terms are standardized, making cross-study comparison straightforward.

Public Health Data Journalism

Journalists investigating drug safety can pull FDA data without filing FOIA requests. Cross-reference adverse event spikes with drug approval dates, recalls, or label changes to build data-driven investigative stories.

Non-Profit and Patient Advocacy

Patient advocacy groups can track reporting rates for conditions affecting their communities. Monitor whether adverse events for a specific drug category are rising or falling. Share findings with members, regulators, or press.

Learning and Experimentation

Data science students and bootcamp graduates can use this as a real-world dataset to practice time-series analysis, NLP on reaction terms, and classification models for serious-vs-non-serious outcomes.

🤖 Ask an AI assistant about this scraper

You can ask Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI assistant about this actor. Try:

• "How do I search for adverse events for a specific drug using this scraper?"
• "What openFDA search syntax filters for death outcomes only?"
• "How do I schedule this actor to run weekly and get results in Slack?"

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

❓ Do I need an FDA API key?

No. The openFDA API is public and requires no authentication. This actor works with zero credentials.

❓ How many records can I export?

Free users can export 10 records as a preview. Paid users can export up to 1,000,000 records per run.

❓ Why is patientAge null on some records?

The FDA does not require reporters to include patient age. Many consumer-submitted reports omit it. This is expected and reflects the real source data.

❓ What is the openFDA skip/pagination limit?

The openFDA API caps pagination at 25,000 records per query. To go beyond 25,000, use the search parameter to narrow results by drug, reaction, date range, or country - then run multiple queries.

❓ What is MedDRA?

MedDRA (Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities) is the international standard for adverse event terminology. The reactions field contains MedDRA preferred terms, usable for cross-database comparisons.

❓ How current is the data?

The openFDA database is updated weekly. Newly submitted adverse event reports typically appear within 1-2 weeks of FDA processing.

❓ Can I filter by drug name?

Yes. Use the search field with: patient.drug.medicinalproduct:"IBUPROFEN" to filter for a specific drug.

❓ Can I filter for death outcomes only?

Yes. Use search: "seriousnessdeath:1" to return only records where death was reported as an outcome.

❓ What format are dates in?

Dates are normalized to ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD). The original FDA source uses YYYYMMDD which is automatically converted.

❓ Does this cover international adverse event reports?

Yes. The FDA receives reports from healthcare providers, manufacturers, and consumers worldwide. The reportCountry field captures the reporter's country (2-letter ISO code).

❓ What is the rate limit?

The public openFDA API allows 1,000 requests per day and 40 requests per minute without an API key. This actor is designed to stay well within limits.

❓ Can I export food recalls?

Yes. Set dataType to food_enforcement to retrieve FDA food recall records including classification, recalling firm, and reason for recall.

🔌 Integrate with any app

This actor works with the entire Apify integration ecosystem. Export your dataset to:

Storage and databases: Google Sheets, Airtable, Notion, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Snowflake, BigQuery, AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage

Automation platforms: Make (Integromat), Zapier, n8n, Pipedream, Activepieces

Communication tools: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Email (SendGrid, Mailchimp)

BI and analytics: Tableau, Power BI, Looker, Metabase, Google Data Studio

Custom integrations: Apify API (REST), webhooks, Apify SDK

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This actor accesses only publicly available data from the openFDA API (open.fda.gov). All data is provided by the US Food and Drug Administration under their open data terms. ParseForge is not affiliated with the FDA. Use of this data is subject to openFDA's terms of service.