openFDA Unified Crawler — Drugs, Devices & Food

Search all openFDA endpoints — drug adverse events, drug labels, drug recalls, device 510k clearances, device recalls, device adverse events, and food enforcement actions — from a single actor. Returns structured JSON for any FDA product type. No API key required.

Keywords: FDA adverse events, drug recalls, openFDA API, medical device recalls, 510k clearances, food enforcement, FDA data API, pharmacovigilance data.

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Why this actor

The FDA's openFDA API covers 12 distinct endpoints across drugs, medical devices, and food — but most developers build separate integrations for each. This actor unifies the entire openFDA surface under one input schema. Change the endpoint field and you switch from drug adverse events to food enforcement without touching any other code.

• 12 openFDA endpoints in one actor.
• Optional FDA API key — keyless for 1,000 req/day; enter your free key for 120,000 req/day.
• Date range filtering on all endpoints.
• No proxy needed — the openFDA API is open and bot-friendly.

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Common endpoints

Endpoint value	What it returns
drug/event	Drug adverse event reports (FAERS)
drug/label	Prescription drug labels (SPL)
drug/enforcement	Drug recall actions
device/510k	Medical device 510k clearances
device/recall	Medical device recall actions
device/event	Medical device adverse events (MAUDE)
food/enforcement	Food recall and enforcement actions

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Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
endpoint	string	drug/event	openFDA endpoint to query.
search	string	aspirin	openFDA search string.
dateFrom	string	—	Filter from this date (YYYY-MM-DD).
dateTo	string	—	Filter to this date.
fdaApiKey	string	—	Optional free key for higher rate limits.
maxResults	integer	100	Maximum records to return.

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Output

Each record is the raw openFDA response object plus endpoint and scraped_at fields. Structure varies by endpoint — see the openFDA documentation for field definitions per endpoint.

A final {"_type":"summary"} record reports total records returned.

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Pricing

First 25 records free per account, then $0.005 per record ($5 per 1,000). Zero charge on empty runs or errors.

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FAQ

Do I need an FDA API key? No — the actor works without a key (1,000 req/day limit). For large pulls, get a free key at open.fda.gov/apis/authentication/ and enter it in the fdaApiKey field. The actor never stores your key.

What is the keyless rate limit? 1,000 requests per day per IP. With a free FDA API key it increases to 120,000 per day. For most use cases, keyless is sufficient.

Which endpoint has the most data? drug/event (FAERS) has the largest dataset with millions of adverse event reports going back to 2004. device/510k covers clearances back to 1976.

Can I get drug recall alerts? Yes — use drug/enforcement endpoint. Filter by date range to get recent recalls.

How do I search for a specific drug? Use the openFDA query syntax in the search field: brand_name:"Humira" for a specific brand, or generic_name:"semaglutide" for generics. The openFDA documentation at open.fda.gov has the full field reference for each endpoint.

Can I automate recall monitoring? Yes — schedule this actor daily or weekly on Apify with endpoint: drug/enforcement and a rolling date range to monitor new recall actions automatically.