# openFDA

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/openfda/  
**Website:** https://open.fda.gov/  
**APIs profiled:** 6

openFDA is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's public data platform, providing Elasticsearch-backed REST APIs serving FDA-administered data on drugs, medical devices, foods, animal and veterinary products, and tobacco. Twenty-two endpoints under a single api.fda.gov base URL expose adverse event reports (FAERS, MAUDE, CAERS), recall enforcement reports, Structured Product Labeling, the National Drug Code Directory, Drugs@FDA approvals, drug shortages, device classification, 510(k) and PMA submissions, Unique Device Identifier records, registration and listing, NSDE drug data, FDA substance harmonization, and historical FDA documents. All endpoints share a Lucene-style search, sort, count, limit, and skip parameter surface, are released under CC0 Public Domain, and operate under a free api.data.gov key that lifts daily quotas to 120,000 requests.

## Kin Score — 51.1 / 100 (developing)

Scored 2026-08-25 under rubric 0.14.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 51.1).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 74.1 |
| Contract Quality | 57.8 |
| Governance | 25.0 |
| Contract Governance | 25.0 |
| Operational Transparency | 36.8 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 54.8 |
| Commercial Clarity | 34.2 |
| Access Clarity | 34.2 |

Regulatory layer — **Government & Public Sector**: 46.3 (matched via tags).

## Agent readiness — 27.7 (agent-aware)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | yes |
| Agentic Access | derived |
| Reversibility Documented | na |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | bearer |
| Idempotency | na |
| Error Semantics | documented |
| OpenAPI Examples | documented |
| Rate Limit Signal | documented |
| Event Surface Described | no |
| Agent Skills | no |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | na |
| Delegated Identity | no |
| Protected Resource Metadata | no |
| Dynamic Client Registration | no |
| Agentic Commerce | no |

## Access

Self-serve signup — onboarding: self-serve, pricing: unknown, trial: no (confidence: medium).

## APIs (6)

- **openFDA Animal & Veterinary API** — Adverse events involving animal and veterinary products.
- **openFDA Device API** — Device-related endpoints (adverse events, classifications, recalls, 510(k), PMA, UDI).
- **openFDA Drug API** — Drug-related endpoints (adverse events, labeling, recalls, NDC).
- **openFDA Food API** — Food-related endpoints (enforcement reports, adverse events).
- **openFDA Other API** — Cross-cutting datasets (NSDE, substance, harmonized).
- **openFDA Tobacco API** — Tobacco product problem reports.

## Agentic access (1)

- **Openfda Agentic Access** — 22 operations

## Security (2)

- **Openfda Authentication** — apiKey · 1 scheme
- **Openfda Domain Security** — TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC · DMARC

## Use cases (7)

- **Adverse Event Surveillance** — Mine FAERS, MAUDE, CAERS, and animal/veterinary adverse event reports for safety signals across drugs, devices, foods, and animal products.
- **Recall Monitoring** — Subscribe to drug, device, and food recall enforcement reports and surface them in clinical, retail, or supply-chain dashboards.
- **Drug Labeling Apps** — Embed authoritative indications, dosage, warnings, and ingredient sections from Structured Product Labeling into consumer or clinical applications.
- **Regulatory Intelligence** — Track 510(k) clearances, PMA approvals, and Drugs@FDA submissions to monitor competitor and pipeline activity.
- **Identifier Resolution** — Look up NDC, UDI, UNII, and SPL Set IDs across product domains to power claims, EHR, and supply-chain integrations.
- **Public-Health Research** — Academic and journalistic investigation of adverse outcomes, recall patterns, and regulatory enforcement using CC0 public data.
- **Supply-Chain Risk** — Cross-reference drug shortage status, recall actions, and registration listings to detect upstream supply disruptions.

## Tags

Government, Healthcare, Drug, Device, Food, Animal & Veterinary, Tobacco, Public Data, Open Data, Adverse Events, Recalls, Regulatory

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/openfda/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.