DrugBank Open Drug Reference Scraper

DrugBank Open Drug Reference Scraper

Scrape DrugBank's open drug reference, up to a million drugs per run. Every drug comes with its identifiers, categories, and computed properties. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

DrugBank's official API needs a paid subscription and rate-limits you. This reads the public drug listing directly, filtered by drug group, and returns each match in one fixed schema. It is the fastest way to build a local copy of the open drug reference for research, analysis, or app development.

Who uses it	What they scrape DrugBank for
Pharmacologists	Which approved drugs share a structural class
Bioinformaticians	A clean dataset of drug identifiers for a knowledge graph
Health data analysts	Which withdrawn drugs are still mentioned in clinical notes
App developers	A local drug reference for a medication lookup feature

What it does

This Actor collects DrugBank drugs by group, and returns each one as a flat row.

• 📋 Group filter: approved, experimental, nutraceutical, illicit, withdrawn, or investigational.
• 🔢 Max items: cap the run from 1 to 1,000,000 drugs.
• 📦 Flat rows: one drug per row, ready for CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with DrugBank data

🧪 Build a research dataset.

A pharmacologist runs the Actor with group set to Approved and maxItems 50000 to get a clean CSV of approved drugs for a drug repurposing screen.

📊 Track regulatory changes.

A health data analyst runs the Actor weekly with group set to Withdrawn to monitor which drugs have been pulled from the market.

🔍 Power a medication lookup.

An app developer runs the Actor once with group set to All to populate a local drug reference for a medication search feature.

🧬 Enrich a knowledge graph.

A bioinformatician runs the Actor with group set to Experimental to collect drug identifiers for a drug-target interaction graph.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	Read the public listing without registration or rate limits
Group filter	Target approved, experimental, or withdrawn drugs in one run
Fixed schema	Every drug returns the same fields, so joins and merges stay clean
Bulk export	CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML for any downstream tool

How it compares

No other Store actor targets DrugBank the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	DrugBank Open Drug Reference Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When DrugBank changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from the drug group selector, and the max items cap runs as the list is read so only the first N matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
 "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.005 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.50
1,000 results	$5.00
10,000 results	$50.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the DrugBank Open Drug Reference Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to DrugBank through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/drugbank-open-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check the group filter. If you selected a group with no drugs, the dataset will be empty. Try setting group to All Drugs.

Why did the run stop before maxItems?

The Actor stops when it reaches the end of the listing. If the selected group has fewer drugs than maxItems, you will get all of them.

Why are some fields empty?

Not every drug has every field. The open reference may omit some properties for certain drugs.

Why is the run slow?

The Actor reads pages sequentially. For large runs, increase the timeout or split the work by group.

Can I scrape a single drug by name?

This Actor browses the listing, not individual drug pages. To get one drug, run with a small maxItems and filter the result.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need a DrugBank API key?	No. This Actor reads the public drug listing, so no registration or key is required.
What is the difference between this and the official DrugBank API?	The official API is a paid product with rate limits. This Actor scrapes the open reference, which is free but may have fewer fields per drug.
Can I filter by drug group?	Yes. Use the group input to select approved, experimental, nutraceutical, illicit, withdrawn, or investigational.
How many drugs can I scrape in one run?	You can set maxItems from 1 to 1,000,000. The default is 10.
What format is the output?	The Actor returns a flat dataset. You can export it as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify platform.
Does this Actor get the full drug record?	It collects the fields available on the public listing. For the complete record, you would need the official API.
Can I schedule this Actor to run daily?	Yes. Use Apify's scheduler to run it on a cron expression, and store the results in a dataset or key-value store.
Is this Actor legal to use?	You are responsible for complying with DrugBank's terms of service. The Actor only reads publicly available pages.
What if I need more than a million drugs?	DrugBank's open reference has fewer than a million drugs. If you need more, contact support to discuss a custom solution.
Can I get the data via API instead of a file?	Yes. You can access the dataset through the Apify API, or use the Actor's API endpoint to trigger runs and fetch results.

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Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by DrugBank. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.