openFDA Scraper: Drug Adverse Events, Device Recalls, and Food Safety Data

The openFDA API exposes seven distinct endpoints covering drug adverse events, drug labeling, drug recalls, device 510k clearances, device adverse events, device recalls, and food enforcement actions. Each endpoint has its own URL scheme, field names, and pagination behavior.

Our openFDA Unified Scraper handles all seven through a single interface. You pick the endpoint, write a search query, and get back structured JSON.

Endpoints covered

Endpoint	What it returns
drug/event	Patient adverse event reports for drugs
drug/label	FDA-approved prescribing information
drug/enforcement	Drug recall actions and alerts
device/510k	Device clearance decisions
device/event	Medical device adverse events
device/recall	Device recall actions
food/enforcement	Food and supplement recall actions

Python example

import requests

run = requests.post(
    "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/themineworks~openfda-unified-crawler/runs",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {APIFY_TOKEN}"},
    json={
        "endpoint": "drug/event",
        "search": "patient.drug.medicinalproduct:aspirin+AND+serious:1",
        "maxResults": 100
    }
)

run_id = run.json()["data"]["id"]

# Poll until finished
import time
while True:
    status = requests.get(
        f"https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/{run_id}",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {APIFY_TOKEN}"}
    ).json()["data"]["status"]
    if status in ("SUCCEEDED", "FAILED"):
        break
    time.sleep(5)

# Fetch results
items = requests.get(
    f"https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/{run_id}/dataset/items",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {APIFY_TOKEN}"}
).json()

for item in items:
    print(item["endpoint"], item.get("patient", {}).get("patientdeath"))

Device 510k clearances

To pull medical device clearances from a specific applicant:

{
    "endpoint": "device/510k",
    "search": "applicant:Medtronic",
    "maxResults": 50
}

Each result includes device name, applicant, decision date, product code, and the regulation number.

Food safety recalls

{
    "endpoint": "food/enforcement",
    "search": "reason_for_recall:undeclared+allergen",
    "maxResults": 200
}

Returns recalling firm, product description, recall reason, classification (Class I/II/III), and states affected.

Search syntax

openFDA uses Lucene query syntax. Field names vary per endpoint. The search parameter is passed directly to the openFDA API, so the openFDA field reference is the canonical source for constructable queries.

Leave search empty to pull the most recent records across the entire endpoint.

Pricing

$0.005 per record. Runs with zero results are not charged.

The actor is available on Apify.