Open Targets Platform Scraper

Open Targets Platform Scraper

Scrape target, disease, and drug data from the Open Targets Platform, including association scores, known drugs, and tractability assessments. Each entity returns as a structured row with its cross-references, evidence summaries, and computed annotations. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The Open Targets Platform integrates public datasets to identify and prioritize drug targets. Manually querying the GraphQL API or browsing the web interface for multiple genes or diseases is slow and unrepeatable. This Actor reads entities directly by Ensembl ID, EFO ID, or ChEMBL ID, and also supports free-text search across targets, diseases, and drugs, returning every match in one consistent schema.

Who uses it	What they scrape Open Targets Platform for
Bioinformaticians	Fetching target-disease association scores for a gene list to prioritize candidates for a drug discovery pipeline.
Computational biologists	Extracting tractability assessments and known drug mechanisms for a set of targets to inform a grant proposal.
Pharma data scientists	Monitoring new evidence links between a disease area and potential targets for competitive intelligence reports.
Academic researchers	Collecting disease-associated targets and their approved drugs to seed a systematic review.

What it does

This Actor collects target, disease, or drug profiles from the Open Targets Platform by ID or free-text search and returns each entity as a flat row with its associations, known drugs, and tractability data.

• 🎯 Target mode: fetch a gene profile by Ensembl ID or approved symbol, including associated diseases, known drugs, and tractability.
• 🦠 Disease mode: fetch a disease profile by EFO or MONDO ID, returning associated targets and drugs with overall association scores.
• 💊 Drug mode: fetch a drug profile by ChEMBL ID, including its known mechanisms of action, indications, and linked targets.
• 🔍 Search mode: free-text query across targets, diseases, and drugs, with entity-type filtering, returning a paginated match list.

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

What you can do with Open Targets Platform data

🧬 Prioritize a gene list for a disease.

A bioinformatician uploads a list of Ensembl IDs in target mode and collects the overall association score for a specific EFO disease to rank the most promising targets.

📋 Audit the druggability of a target family.

A computational biologist runs target mode for every kinase in a family and exports the tractability small molecule bucket to identify the easiest proteins to drug.

🔎 Find all targets linked to a rare disease.

A researcher uses disease mode with a MONDO ID for a rare genetic disorder and retrieves every associated target with its genetic evidence score to plan a functional study.

💊 Map known drugs to a new indication.

A pharma data scientist searches for a disease name, collects all associated targets, and then pulls the known drugs for each target to find repurposing opportunities.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
Direct entity resolution	Fetch a single target, disease, or drug by its canonical identifier and get its full computed profile.
Free-text search	Query by gene symbol, disease name, or drug name and retrieve all matching entities across the platform.
Association scores	Each target-disease pair includes harmonic sum, genetics, somatic, and known drug scores from the platform's evidence pipeline.
Tractability data	Get small molecule, antibody, and PROTAC tractability buckets and categories for every target.

How it compares

This Actor is purpose-built for the Open Targets Platform GraphQL API, while the competitors below are general-purpose scrapers for different data sources.

Feature	ParseForge	Google Maps Scraper	Web Scraper	Website Content Crawler
Open Targets GraphQL API integration	Yes, native	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Target profile by Ensembl ID	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Disease profile by EFO ID	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Drug profile by ChEMBL ID	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Free-text search across entities	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Tractability assessment data	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with an Ensembl gene ID, EFO disease ID, ChEMBL drug ID, or a free-text search query, and set a maximum item limit to control the size of each run. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "mode": "target",
 "ensemblId": "ENSG00000146648",
 "efoId": "EFO_0000222",
 "chemblId": "CHEMBL1201583",
 "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
 "mode": "target",
 "ensemblId": "ENSG00000146648",
 "efoId": "EFO_0000222",
 "chemblId": "CHEMBL1201583",
 "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.039 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$3.90
1,000 results	$39.00
10,000 results	$390.00

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 Open Targets Platform 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 Open Targets Platform 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/opentargets-scraper"

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

Troubleshooting

I get no results when I enter a gene symbol.

Check that the symbol is an approved HGNC symbol and that you have selected target mode. If the symbol is outdated or an alias, use the Ensembl ID directly instead.

My disease search returns zero matches.

Verify you are using a valid EFO or MONDO ID. You can find the correct ID by searching the disease name on the Open Targets Platform website and copying the ID from the URL.

The Actor runs but the dataset is empty.

Ensure you have set a mode and provided a valid identifier or search query. If using search mode, check that you have selected at least one entity type or left it empty to search all types.

I get a timeout or the run takes too long.

Reduce the maximum targets value. Fetching a large number of entities with all their associations can be data-intensive. Try a smaller batch first.

The output has nested fields I cannot flatten.

The Actor returns nested objects as prefixed flat columns. If you need a different structure, use Apify's dataset export or a post-processing function to reshape the JSON.

FAQ

Question	Answer
What is the Open Targets Platform?	It is a public-private partnership that integrates human genetics, genomics, and drug data to systematically identify and prioritize drug targets. The platform computes target-disease association scores from over 20 public data sources.
What identifiers do I need to use target mode?	You can provide an Ensembl gene ID like ENSG00000146648 for EGFR, or an HGNC approved gene symbol like EGFR. If you supply a symbol, the Actor resolves it to an Ensembl ID first.
What disease identifiers are accepted?	The Actor accepts EFO IDs like EFO_0000222 for acute myeloid leukemia, or MONDO IDs like MONDO_0004975 for Alzheimer's disease. You can find these on the Open Targets Platform website.
Can I search by a drug name instead of a ChEMBL ID?	Yes. Use search mode and enter the drug name, such as 'imatinib', and select the drug entity type. The Actor will return matching ChEMBL drug records.
What data does a target profile include?	A target profile includes approved symbol, biotype, associated diseases with their overall association scores, known drugs with mechanisms of action, and tractability assessments for small molecule, antibody, and PROTAC modalities.
How are target-disease association scores computed?	The Open Targets Platform computes a harmonic sum from data type scores including genetic associations, somatic mutations, known drugs, pathways, RNA expression, text mining, and animal models. Each data type score is also returned separately.
What is tractability and what categories are returned?	Tractability assesses how druggable a target is. The Actor returns small molecule, antibody, and PROTAC tractability, each with a bucket (e.g. 'Clinical Precedence', 'Discovery Precedence') and a category (e.g. 'Targets with drugs in Phase 4').
Can I limit how many results I get?	Yes. Set the maximum targets field to any number between 1 and 1,000,000. The Actor stops collecting once it reaches that limit.
Does this Actor require an API key?	No. The Actor reads from the public Open Targets Platform GraphQL endpoint. No registration, API key, or authentication is needed.
What output formats are supported?	You can export your dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify platform. The schema is a flat row per entity with nested objects expanded into prefixed columns.

Related actors

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 Open Targets. 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.