FDA Drug Shortages Scraper (Current and Resolved)

Data source

The public openFDA drug shortages JSON endpoint (api.fda.gov/drug/shortages.json), which mirrors the FDA Drug Shortages database and is refreshed by the FDA as shortages are posted or updated.

What does FDA Drug Shortages Scraper do?

It returns FDA drug shortage records as clean, flat JSON: generic and brand name, shortage status (current, resolved, to be discontinued), availability, the reason for the shortage, estimated resupply notes, company, presentation and NDC, dosage form, therapeutic categories, and posting and update dates. Filters keep runs small, and pricing is per result.

Why use it?

• Pharmacy and hospital buyers: monitor which products are short and what the manufacturer says about resupply.
• Distributors and wholesalers: find shortage products by drug, category or dosage form to target sourcing and outreach.
• Researchers and analysts: build a history of shortage reasons and durations, including resolved shortages.
• Replaces manually browsing the FDA site or writing your own pagination against the API.

How to use it

1. Open the Actor and set the filters.
2. Click Start. Download results as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read them through the API.
3. Add a Schedule and an Integration (Slack, Google Sheets, webhook) to get new records automatically.

Input

Field	Description
status	Current, Resolved, To Be Discontinued or All. Default Current.
searchTerm	Optional. Matches generic name, brand name, active substance or company, for example heparin or Pfizer.
therapeuticCategory	Optional. For example Anesthesia, Oncology, Anti-Infective, Cardiovascular.
dosageForm	Optional. For example Injection, Tablet, Capsule.
maxResults	Hard stop for the run. You are billed per result, so this caps the cost.
proxyConfiguration	Not needed for this API. Leave off unless you hit rate limits.

Example input:

{ "status": "Current", "searchTerm": "heparin", "maxResults": 50 }

Output

Every record has the same shape (trimmed example):

{
  "id": "63323-285-10|Current|03/23/2018",
  "genericName": "Ropivacaine Hydrochloride Injection",
  "brandNames": ["NAROPIN"],
  "status": "Current",
  "availability": "Unavailable",
  "shortageReason": "Demand increase for the drug",
  "company": "Fresenius Kabi USA, LLC",
  "presentation": "Naropin, Injection, 2 mg/1 mL (NDC 63323-285-10)",
  "dosageForm": "Injection",
  "therapeuticCategories": ["Anesthesia"],
  "initialPostingDate": "2018-03-23",
  "updateDate": "2026-09-15",
  "estimatedResupplyNote": "Estimated recovery: TBD",
  "packageNdc": "63323-285-10",
  "contactInfo": "888-386-1300",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-02T08:15:25.167Z"
}

Field	Meaning
id	Stable key (NDC, status and posting date), safe for deduplication between runs
genericName, brandNames	Drug names
status	Current, Resolved or To Be Discontinued
availability	Availability as reported by the manufacturer, when published
shortageReason	Reason given for the shortage, when published
estimatedResupplyNote	Resupply or recovery note from the manufacturer, when published
resolvedNote	Note on resolved records
initialPostingDate, updateDate, changeDate, discontinuedDate	ISO dates (YYYY-MM-DD)
manufacturers, substanceNames, applicationNumbers, routes	Extra openFDA product metadata when matched

Pricing

Pay per event: a small fee when a run starts, then a fixed price per result returned. You only pay for records that pass your filters. Set maxResults to cap any run.

Limitations

• Covers FDA shortage data only. ASHP shortage listings are not included.
• Some fields (shortage reason, availability, resupply estimate) are blank when the manufacturer did not publish them.
• One record per shortage posting row (per NDC and presentation), so a single drug can appear several times.
• The FDA states openFDA data is unvalidated and must not be used for medical decisions.

FAQ

Is this legal? The Actor reads data the FDA publishes openly through its public API without a login and stores only business information published for that purpose. You are responsible for how you use the data.

Something is missing or broken? Open an issue in the Issues tab; response time is usually under a day.