Medicare Part D Drug Spending Search

Search Medicare Part D prescription drug spending data published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Look up any prescription drug by brand name, generic name, or manufacturer and retrieve structured spending, claims, and beneficiary data. No API key required.

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Data Source

Official CMS Medicare Part D Spending Dashboard. Two datasets are available:

• Quarterly -- the most recent 2024 data, including drug descriptions.
• Annual -- historical trends from 2019 through 2023, including per-unit cost breakdowns.

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Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
brandName	string	Drug brand name
genericName	string	Generic (chemical) drug name
manufacturerName	string	Manufacturer name
totalSpending	string	Total Medicare Part D spending for the period
totalClaims	string	Total number of claims
totalBeneficiaries	string	Total number of Medicare beneficiaries
avgSpendPerClaim	string	Average Medicare spending per claim
avgSpendPerBeneficiary	string	Average Medicare spending per beneficiary

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Use Cases

• Pharmaceutical pricing research -- track what Medicare pays for specific drugs and compare manufacturers or generic equivalents.
• Market intelligence -- identify which drugs have the highest total Medicare spend and beneficiary volume.
• Policy analysis -- examine year-over-year cost trends across the 2019-2023 annual dataset.
• Competitive analysis -- compare spending on brand-name versus generic versions of the same drug.
• Financial modeling -- estimate drug market size using Medicare claims and beneficiary data as a proxy.

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How to Use

Set the input fields and run the actor. Results are pushed to the Apify dataset and can be exported as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchType	string	quarterly	Dataset to use: quarterly (2024) or annual (2019-2023)
keyword	string		Drug brand name, generic name, or manufacturer to search
maxResults	integer	50	Maximum number of records to return (1-5000)

Example Input

{
  "searchType": "quarterly",
  "keyword": "Humira",
  "maxResults": 50
}

Example -- Search by Manufacturer

{
  "searchType": "annual",
  "keyword": "Pfizer",
  "maxResults": 200
}

Example -- Search by Generic Name

{
  "searchType": "quarterly",
  "keyword": "Adalimumab",
  "maxResults": 100
}

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Cost

• Actor start fee: ~$0.10 per run
• Compute: minimal -- typical runs complete in under 10 seconds
• Data cost: $0.005 per result

Most searches return results well under $0.15 total.

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Output Formats

Results are available in the Apify dataset viewer and can be exported as:

• JSON
• CSV
• Excel (XLSX)
• XML
• RSS

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FAQ

Do I need an API key or CMS account? No. This actor uses the public CMS data API, which requires no authentication.

How current is the data? The quarterly dataset reflects the most recent 2024 quarterly data published by CMS. The annual dataset covers 2019-2023.

Can I retrieve all drugs from a specific manufacturer? Yes. Enter the manufacturer name (e.g., Pfizer, AbbVie, Merck) in the keyword field and increase maxResults as needed.

What is the difference between quarterly and annual? Quarterly data includes drug descriptions and is the most current. Annual data includes per-unit cost fields and year-over-year comparisons across 2019-2023.

Is this data legally usable for commercial purposes? CMS publishes this data as a public resource. There are no usage restrictions on the underlying data. Verify your intended use against applicable regulations for your industry.

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