European Medicines Agency Medicines Scraper

Extract comprehensive data from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) with ease. Collect critical information about human and veterinary medicines, including authorization status, therapeutic areas, marketing dates, and official URLs. Perfect for regulatory research, compliance monitoring, and healthcare market intelligence.

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Features

• Comprehensive coverage — Extract records for both human and veterinary medicines published by the EMA.
• Targeted extraction — Filter medicines by names, INN/common names, status, or specific therapeutic keywords.
• Flexible input options — Support for direct search URLs, specific medicine detail pages, or direct JSON report URLs.
• Run size control — Define maximum results and page limits to manage resources and speed.

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Use Cases

Regulatory Compliance

Track and monitor authorization statuses, updates, and regulatory timelines directly from the official source. Ensure your compliance database is always up-to-date with current EMA listings.

Market Intelligence

Analyze authorized and suspended medicines to understand market trends and competitive landscapes. Identify potential therapeutic gaps and portfolio opportunities for your organization.

Clinical Research

Gather structured data on common names, therapeutic areas (MeSH), and product details for academic or clinical research. Simplify data collation for scientific reports and meta-analyses.

Healthcare Analytics

Feed downstream business intelligence dashboards and databases with clean, structured CSV or JSON records. Enable automated alerts for medicine status changes or new approvals.

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Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
url	String	No	—	Optional EMA search URL, medicine detail URL, or JSON report URL to start scraping.
keyword	String	No	—	Optional keyword filter to target specific medicines or therapeutic terms.
results_wanted	Integer	No	20	Maximum number of medicine records to extract.
max_pages	Integer	No	5	Cap on the number of search pages to parse (20 records per page).
proxyConfiguration	Object	No	—	Proxy settings for running in restricted network environments.

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Output Data

Each item in the dataset contains:

Field	Type	Description
name_of_medicine	String	Official name of the medicine.
category	String	Medicine category (e.g., Human or Veterinary).
medicine_status	String	Current authorization status of the medicine.
international_non_proprietary_name_common_name	String	International Nonproprietary Name (INN) or common name.
therapeutic_area_mesh	String	Therapeutic area classified by MeSH terms.
marketing_authorisation_date	String	Date the marketing authorization was granted.
last_updated_date	String	Date the medicine record was last updated by the EMA.
ema_product_number	String	Unique product identification number assigned by the EMA.
medicine_url	String	Link to the official EMA medicine detail page.

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Usage Examples

Basic Run

Run with defaults to fetch the latest records matching the default keyword:

{
    "results_wanted": 20
}

Keyword Search

Target a specific therapeutic area or medical condition:

{
    "keyword": "oncology",
    "results_wanted": 50,
    "max_pages": 5
}

Custom Search URL

Extract records matching a pre-filtered search query on the EMA website:

{
    "url": "https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/search?search_api_fulltext=vaccine",
    "results_wanted": 30
}

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Sample Output

{
    "category": "Human",
    "name_of_medicine": "Nuwiq",
    "ema_product_number": "EMEA/H/C/002813",
    "medicine_status": "Authorised",
    "international_non_proprietary_name_common_name": "simoctocog alfa",
    "therapeutic_area_mesh": "Hemophilia A",
    "marketing_authorisation_date": "22/07/2014",
    "last_updated_date": "21/05/2026",
    "medicine_url": "https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/EPAR/nuwiq"
}

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Tips for Best Results

Start with Low Volume

Test your configuration with a small run of 10-20 results first. Once you verify the output meets your requirements, scale up the limits.

Use Specific Keywords

Reduce extraction time and data volume by specifying precise medicine names or therapeutic terms in the keyword input.

Use Search URLs for Advanced Filtering

Perform your complex filtering directly on the official EMA website and copy the resulting search URL as input to target exactly what you need.

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Proxy Configuration

For reliable results, residential proxies are recommended:

{
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
}

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Integrations

Connect your data with:

• Google Sheets — Export medicine data directly to active sheets
• Airtable — Build searchable relational drug databases
• Zapier — Automate alerts when medicine status changes
• Make — Sync results into custom reporting workflows
• Webhooks — Send real-time updates to your API endpoints

Export Formats

• JSON — For developers and system integrations
• CSV — For spreadsheet calculations and analytics
• Excel — For sharing reports with stakeholders
• XML — For legacy data management systems

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many medicine records can I extract?

You can extract all matching records available on the portal. Set results_wanted and max_pages to a high number to run comprehensive downloads.

Can I extract details for a single medicine?

Yes, simply input the official EMA page URL of that specific medicine into the URL parameter.

Why are some fields empty in the output?

Some fields might be blank if the information is not provided or not applicable to that specific medicine category.

Are veterinary medicines included?

Yes. The scraper collects both human and veterinary records depending on your keywords or filter URL.

Can I automate updates?

Yes. You can schedule regular runs of this actor on the Apify platform and export the new datasets automatically.

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Support

For issues or feature requests, contact support through the Apify Console.

Resources

• Apify Documentation
• API Reference

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Legal Notice

This actor is designed for legitimate data collection purposes. Users are responsible for ensuring compliance with website terms of service and applicable laws. Use data responsibly and respect rate limits.