openFDA Drug Search - 600K+ Adverse Events, Product Recalls & Drug Labels

Search the FDA's public openFDA database for drug safety data, product recalls, and drug labels. One actor covers three high-value FDA datasets:

• Drug Adverse Events (FAERS) -- 600,000+ reports of drug side effects, injuries, and deaths reported to the FDA
• FDA Recalls -- Drug, medical device, and food recall/enforcement actions with classification, reason, and distribution details
• Drug Labels -- Package inserts with indications, warnings, dosage, contraindications, and active ingredients

No API key required. No proxies needed. Pure public FDA data.

Who uses this data?

• Pharmaceutical companies monitoring adverse event signals for their products
• Compliance teams tracking FDA recall activity across competitors
• Insurance & legal researching drug safety history for claims and litigation
• Healthcare researchers studying drug safety patterns at scale
• Journalists investigating FDA recall trends and drug safety issues
• Sales intelligence identifying companies affected by recalls

What data do you get?

Adverse Events (FAERS)

Field	Description
Safety Report ID	Unique FDA report identifier
Receive Date	When FDA received the report
Serious	Whether the event was serious (death, hospitalization, disability)
Serious Outcome	Specific outcomes: Death, Hospitalization, Life-Threatening, Disability
Patient Sex/Age	Demographics when available
Reactions	All reported adverse reactions with outcomes
Drugs	All drugs involved with role (suspect/concomitant), active ingredients, route
Report Type	Spontaneous, Literature, Study
Country	Where the event occurred

Recalls / Enforcement

Field	Description
Recall Number	FDA recall identifier
Classification	Class I (dangerous), Class II (may cause harm), Class III (unlikely harm)
Product Type	Drugs, Devices, or Food
Recalling Firm	Company issuing the recall
Reason for Recall	Why the product was recalled
Product Description	Detailed product info including NDC, lot numbers
Distribution Pattern	Where the recalled product was distributed
Status	Ongoing, Terminated, or Completed
Dates	Initiation, classification, report, and termination dates

Drug Labels

Field	Description
Brand Name	Commercial drug name
Generic Name	Generic/chemical name
Manufacturer	Manufacturing company
Active Ingredient	Active pharmaceutical ingredients
Indications	Approved uses
Warnings	Safety warnings including boxed warnings
Dosage	Dosage and administration instructions
Contraindications	When NOT to use the drug
Adverse Reactions	Known side effects
Drug Interactions	Interactions with other drugs
Application Number	FDA application (NDA/ANDA) number
NDC	National Drug Code

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
searchType	Select	adverse_events, recalls, or drug_labels
query	String	Drug name, company, or keyword (e.g. "aspirin", "Pfizer")
dateFrom	String	Start date in YYYY-MM-DD format
dateTo	String	End date in YYYY-MM-DD format
maxResults	Integer	Maximum results to return (default: 100, max: 25,000)

Example searches

Find adverse events for aspirin:

{
    "searchType": "adverse_events",
    "query": "aspirin",
    "maxResults": 50
}

Find all FDA recalls mentioning contamination in 2024:

{
    "searchType": "recalls",
    "query": "contamination",
    "dateFrom": "2024-01-01",
    "dateTo": "2024-12-31"
}

Get drug label for ibuprofen:

{
    "searchType": "drug_labels",
    "query": "ibuprofen",
    "maxResults": 10
}

FAQ

Is this data free? Yes. openFDA is a free public API provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. No API key is needed.

What is FAERS? The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) is a database of adverse event reports, medication error reports, and product quality complaints submitted to the FDA. It contains over 600,000 reports.

What do recall classifications mean?

• Class I: Dangerous or defective product that could cause serious health problems or death
• Class II: Product that might cause a temporary health problem or pose a slight threat of a serious nature
• Class III: Product that is unlikely to cause any adverse health reaction but violates FDA regulations

How current is the data? openFDA data is updated regularly. Drug adverse events are typically updated monthly. Recall data is updated as new enforcement actions are filed.

Can I search for medical devices and food recalls too? Yes. The recalls search type automatically queries across drug, device, and food enforcement databases.

Integrations

Connect this actor to Google Sheets, Slack, email, or 2,000+ apps via Apify integrations. Set up monitoring to get notified when new recalls are filed for specific drugs or companies.

Pricing

Usage-based pricing on the Apify platform. This actor uses minimal compute (pure API calls, no browser needed). Typical cost: a few cents per run.

More Public Data Tools

This actor is part of a collection of 30 public data scrapers. All free to try, all on Apify:

• SEC EDGAR Company Filings -- 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, insider trading for all public companies
• FEC Campaign Finance -- 50M+ individual donations, PACs, candidate fundraising
• IRS 990 Nonprofit Search -- Revenue, expenses, CEO pay for 2M+ nonprofits
• openFDA Drug Recalls -- Adverse events, recalls, drug labels
• U.S. Census ACS -- Demographics, income, housing for any geography
• BLS Economic Data -- CPI, unemployment, wages, JOLTS
• USDA FoodData Central -- 300K+ foods with full nutrition facts
• YellowPages Scraper -- US business leads with emails

See all 30 actors →