Drugs@FDA Overview

Drugs@FDA includes most of the drug products approved since 1939. The majority of patient information, labels, approval letters, reviews, and other information are available for drug products approved since 1998.

Drugs@FDA contains information about the following FDA-approved products for human use:

    Prescription brand-name drug products, generic drug products, and many therapeutic biological products

    Over-the-counter brand-name and generic drugs

Key Facts

  • Source of the data:
    Drugs@FDA
  • Changes to the source data:
    openFDA may change some field names and converts the data into JSON, which is a widely used machine readable format.
  • Time period covered in this API:
    1939 to present
  • Frequency of API updates:
    Weekly

Fields Harmonization

Different datasets use different unique identifiers, which can make it difficult to find the same drug in each dataset.

openFDA features harmonization on specific identifiers to make it easier to both search for and understand the drug products returned by API queries. These additional fields are attached to records in all categories, if applicable.

Review the chart below to better understand which fields are harmonized.

Additional Information About Drugs@FDA

To read more about Drugs@FDA, please visit:

Responsible use of the data

Do not rely on openFDA to make decisions regarding medical care. Always speak to your health provider about the risks and benefits of FDA-regulated products. We may limit or otherwise restrict your access to the Application Programming Interface in line with our Terms of Service