FDA Warning Letters Watch Scraper

Use this actor to monitor public FDA warning-letter and import-alert metadata from official public sources. Input offices, keywords, lookback windows, and watch terms; get source-linked digest rows for internal regulatory review. This actor is informational only and does not provide professional advice, performance promises, prospecting lists, or outreach data.

Store Quickstart

• Leave feeds empty to use the default FDA Warning Letters feed.
• Keep lookbackDays=30, delivery=dataset, and reuse the same snapshotKey on recurring runs.
• Add watchTerms when you want action_needed only for matched companies, subjects, or offices.

Key Features

• 🏛️ Government-sourced — Pulls directly from official agency feeds — no third-party aggregators
• ⏱️ Timely digests — Daily/weekly rollups of new filings, rulings, or actions
• 🔍 Keyword watchlists — Flag items matching your compliance/legal watch terms
• 📊 Structured metadata — Agency, date, docket, document type, link — all dataset-ready
• 📡 Webhook alerts — Push to legal/compliance teams the moment new items match watchlist

Use Cases

Who	Why
Developers	Automate recurring data fetches without building custom scrapers
Data teams	Pipe structured output into analytics warehouses
Ops teams	Monitor changes via webhook alerts
Product managers	Track competitor/market signals without engineering time

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
feeds	array	—	One entry per monitored feed or watchlist. Leave empty to use the default public warning_letters_latest feed. import_ale
watchTerms	string	—	Applied to every feed in addition to any feed-level watchTerms. Matching new/changed items trigger action_needed.
lookbackDays	integer	30	How far back to look for warning-letter posting dates, import-alert publish dates, or bulletin send dates.
maxItemsPerFeed	integer	50	Upper bound on normalized items per feed. Lower values keep recurring runs maintenance-light.
maxPagesPerFeed	integer	5	Only used for warning_letters feeds. Stop after this many public datatables requests even if the lookback window is broa
maxDetailFetchesPerFeed	integer	25	Cap on detail-page enrichment for import_alerts feeds.
delivery	string	"dataset"	dataset writes digest rows to the Apify dataset; webhook POSTs the digest payload to webhookUrl.
webhookUrl	string	—	POST target for the digest payload.

Input Example

{
  "feeds": [
    {
      "id": "cder-warning-letters",
      "name": "CDER Warning Letters",
      "source": "warning_letters",
      "issuingOffices": ["Center for Drug Evaluation and Research"],
      "maxItems": 25
    }
  ],
  "watchTerms": "Acme, sterile, cGMP",
  "lookbackDays": 30,
  "delivery": "dataset",
  "datasetMode": "all",
  "snapshotKey": "fda-warning-letters-prod",
  "dryRun": false
}

Input Examples

Example: Single-target audit

{
  "targets": [
    "example-target-1"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerTarget": 30
}

Example: Bulk portfolio

{
  "targets": [
    "target-1",
    "target-2",
    "target-3"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerTarget": 50,
  "snapshotKey": "fda-warning-letter-digest-state"
}

Example: Recurring delta watch

{
  "targets": [
    "target-1"
  ],
  "snapshotKey": "fda-warning-letter-digest-state",
  "emitChangedOnly": true
}

Output

Field	Type	Description
meta	object
errors	array
digests	array
digests[].feedId	string
digests[].feedName	string
digests[].source	string
digests[].checkedAt	timestamp
digests[].windowStart	timestamp
digests[].lookbackDays	number
digests[].isInitial	boolean
digests[].status	string
digests[].changedItemCount	number
digests[].newItemCount	number
digests[].updatedItemCount	number
digests[].totalItemCount	number
digests[].watchTermHitCount	number
digests[].changedSinceLastRun	boolean
digests[].actionNeeded	boolean
digests[].recommendedAction	string
digests[].signalTags	array
digests[].changeTypeBreakdown	object
digests[].topIssuingOffices	array
digests[].watchTermHits	array
digests[].changedItems	array
digests[].items	array
digests[].error	null

Output Example

{
  "digests": [
    {
      "feedId": "cder-warning-letters",
      "status": "action_needed",
      "changedItemCount": 1,
      "watchTermHitCount": 1,
      "recommendedAction": "Review 1 changed warning letter item(s) matching watch terms (Acme Sterile)."
    }
  ]
}

API Usage

Run this actor programmatically using the Apify API. Replace YOUR_API_TOKEN with your token from Apify Console → Settings → Integrations.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/taroyamada~fda-warning-letter-digest/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "feeds": [ { "id": "cder-warning-letters", "name": "CDER Warning Letters", "source": "warning_letters", "issuingOffices": ["Center for Drug Evaluation and Research"], "maxItems": 25 } ], "watchTerms": "Acme, sterile, cGMP", "lookbackDays": 30, "delivery": "dataset", "datasetMode": "all", "snapshotKey": "fda-warning-letters-prod", "dryRun": false }'

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("taroyamada/fda-warning-letter-digest").call(run_input={
  "feeds": [
    {
      "id": "cder-warning-letters",
      "name": "CDER Warning Letters",
      "source": "warning_letters",
      "issuingOffices": ["Center for Drug Evaluation and Research"],
      "maxItems": 25
    }
  ],
  "watchTerms": "Acme, sterile, cGMP",
  "lookbackDays": 30,
  "delivery": "dataset",
  "datasetMode": "all",
  "snapshotKey": "fda-warning-letters-prod",
  "dryRun": false
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

JavaScript / Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('taroyamada/fda-warning-letter-digest').call({
  "feeds": [
    {
      "id": "cder-warning-letters",
      "name": "CDER Warning Letters",
      "source": "warning_letters",
      "issuingOffices": ["Center for Drug Evaluation and Research"],
      "maxItems": 25
    }
  ],
  "watchTerms": "Acme, sterile, cGMP",
  "lookbackDays": 30,
  "delivery": "dataset",
  "datasetMode": "all",
  "snapshotKey": "fda-warning-letters-prod",
  "dryRun": false
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Tips & Limitations

• Run daily for active watchlists; weekly for passive monitoring.
• Webhook delivery works well for compliance team Slack channels — include docket URL for 1-click access.
• Use watchKeywords generously — false positives are cheap to triage, false negatives miss filings.
• Pair with regulatory-change-monitor for cross-agency coverage.
• Archive Dataset rows weekly for long-term compliance evidence retention.

FAQ

How far back does history go?

This actor monitors forward-only — new items since first run. For historical data, use the agency's own search tool.

What timezones are used?

All timestamps are UTC. Use your downstream pipeline to convert to agency-local time if needed.

Does it translate non-English content?

No — original language is preserved. Use downstream translation services if needed.

Is the data official?

Yes — sourced directly from official government websites and feeds. Not a third-party aggregator.

Can I use this for legal research?

For alerting and monitoring, yes. For litigation research, cross-verify with primary sources (agency websites) — this actor is a monitoring tool, not a legal database.

Related Actors

Government & Regulatory cluster — explore related Apify tools:

• EPA Enforcement Digest | ECHO Compliance Risk Monitor — Monitor EPA ECHO all-media facility search, corporate compliance screener, and enforcement case feeds with one summary-first digest row per watched company, facility, or case feed.
• Federal Register Digest | Agency Rule & Notice Monitor — Monitor Federal Register documents — rules, proposed rules, and notices — per configured agency feed.
• Government Contract Award Monitor | Award & Competitor Watch — Monitor public-sector contract award notices for new wins, notable awardees, incumbent recompetes, and competitor signals — one digest row per configured feed without brittle broad crawling.
• Grants.gov Funding Digest | Opportunity Watch & Signal Digest — Monitor Grants.
• NHTSA Vehicle Recall Digest | Recalls + Complaints Watch — Monitor official NHTSA vehicle recall and complaint endpoints for watched model-family, VIN, and manufacturer feeds.
• Product Safety Recall Digest | CPSC + openFDA Alerts — Monitor CPSC saferproducts.
• Regulatory Change Monitor API — Monitor official regulator update feeds, government bulletin pages, and public compliance notices with one action-oriented digest row per monitored source.
• OFAC Sanctions Change Digest | SDN List Monitor — Monitor the OFAC SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) sanctions list for additions and removals.
• Tariff Trade Change Digest | Federal Register + HTS Monitor — Monitor U.
• Treasury Fiscal Data Digest | Debt, Rates & Budget Monitor — Monitor the U.
• USPTO Patent Monitor API | JSON + Webhook — Search and monitor US patent filings with multi-source fallback.
• Campaign Finance & Lobbying Digest | FEC + LDA Watch — Monitor official FEC OpenFEC committee reports and LDA.

Cost

Pay Per Event:

• actor-start: $0.01 (flat fee per run)
• dataset-item: $0.003 per output item

Example: 1,000 items = $0.01 + (1,000 × $0.003) = $3.01

No subscription required — you only pay for what you use.

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Compliance Guardrails

This actor is independently operated and has no source-agency affiliation, sponsorship, or approval. It uses public data from FDA public warning-letter/import-alert pages and public feeds used by the existing actor (https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/compliance-actions-and-activities/warning-letters). Results are informational only and may be delayed, incomplete, amended, withdrawn, or superseded by the source. Verify all records with the linked official source before relying on them.

• Use public FDA records only.
• No professional advice, official safety conclusion, performance promise, prospecting list, or outreach positioning.
• Output official source URL, retrieved_at, issuing office, date, and matched watch terms where available.