🇦🇺 Australia · PBS · APVMA

Australian medicine database API

Search Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme items by name, active ingredient or PBS item code, plus the APVMA veterinary product register. One REST API, collected daily, with the source and licence of every record.

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GET /v1/drugs

curl -G https://api.medifontis.com/v1/drugs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer mf_live_your_api_key" \
  --data-urlencode "country=au" \
  --data-urlencode "q=paracetamol"

const params = new URLSearchParams({ country: 'au', q: 'paracetamol' })
const response = await fetch(`https://api.medifontis.com/v1/drugs?${params}`, {
  headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer mf_live_your_api_key' },
})
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Medifontis ${response.status}`)
const { results, nextOffset } = await response.json()

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.medifontis.com/v1/drugs",
    params={"country": "au", "q": "paracetamol"},
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer mf_live_your_api_key"},
    timeout=10,
)
response.raise_for_status()
results = response.json()["results"]

Response

{
  "country": "au",
  "results": [
    {
      "country": "au",
      "sourceId": "au.pbs.items",
      "id": "au:pbs:items:10598T_12218_485_2863_43597",
      "kind": "packages",
      "name": "APOHEALTH Osteo Relief Paracetamol 665 mg — paracetamol 665 mg modified release tablet, 96",
      "names": [
        "APOHEALTH Osteo Relief Paracetamol 665 mg — paracetamol 665 mg modified release tablet, 96",
        "APOHEALTH Osteo Relief Paracetamol 665 mg",
        "Paracetamol",
        "paracetamol 665 mg modified release tablet, 96"
      ],
      "identifiers": [
        {
          "value": "10598T",
          "scheme": "pbs-item"
        },
        {
          "value": "10598T_12218_485_2863_43597",
          "scheme": "pbs-li-item"
        }
      ],
      "data": {
        "form": "Tablet 665 mg (modified release)",
        "name": "APOHEALTH Osteo Relief Paracetamol 665 mg — paracetamol 665 mg modified release tablet, 96",
        "brand": "APOHEALTH Osteo Relief Paracetamol 665 mg",
        "route": "Oral",
        "pbsCode": "10598T",
        "liItemId": "10598T_12218_485_2863_43597"
      },
      "retrievedAt": "2026-10-20T17:02:19.073Z",
      "sourceUrl": "https://data-api.health.gov.au/pbs/api/v3/schedules?limit=100000&page=1",
      "licence": {
        "id": "LicenseRef-PBS-Public-API",
        "attribution": "Source: Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), Department of Health, Commonwealth of Australia. Copyright (c) 2024 Department of Health, Commonwealth of Australia."
      }
    }
  ],
  "nextOffset": 2
}

Try it before you integrate

Find a medicine by name or code

Explore a small saved sample of official records. Create a free key to search the complete API.

Country

Name or national code

Sample data only. No patient suitability or pharmacy stock is inferred.

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18,388Records · 🇦🇺 Australia

2Official sources · 🇦🇺

199Countries covered

6.7MRecords worldwide

🇦🇺 Australia

Official sources

Every record comes from one of these publishers, with its counts and licence as of the latest collection.

Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA)

Veterinary medicines

Veterinary products from the APVMA PubCRIS register, with APVMA product numbers.

Records: 3,315
Licence: Publisher terms

APVMA product number

au.apvma.pubcris-veterinary-medicines Official source

Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

PBS items

Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme items with their PBS item codes.

Records: 15,073
Licence: Publisher terms

PBS item codePBS listing item

au.pbs.items Official source

Why Medifontis

Built for developers who need medicine data they can trust

One schema for every country

Records from 199 countries share the same JSON shape, so code written for one country works for every other.

Names and national codes

Search brand names, active ingredients and identifiers such as AIC, CN, CIP13, NDC, DIN or BNF codes, without worrying about accents or case.

Provenance on every record

Each result carries its source URL, retrieval time, licence and limitations, so you can show users exactly where the data comes from.

Human and veterinary

Filter by use domain and target species wherever the source publishes them.

Typeahead suggestions

A dedicated endpoint returns distinct names while users type, ranked exact, prefix, then substring.

Collected every day

Every source is collected on a daily schedule and published atomically, so you never read a half-imported country.

Provenance

Every record tells you where it came from

Medifontis never invents or merges data. Each record keeps the identifiers its publisher assigned and states its source, licence and known limitations.

sourceUrl links the official dataset the record was collected from.
retrievedAt is when Medifontis collected it.
licence names the publisher’s terms and the attribution to show.
limitations lists what the source does not establish, such as current availability.

Learn about records

Provenance fields

{
  "sourceUrl": "https://data-api.health.gov.au/pbs/api/v3/schedules?limit=100000&page=1",
  "retrievedAt": "2026-10-20T17:02:19.073Z",
  "licence": {
    "id": "LicenseRef-PBS-Public-API",
    "url": "https://data-api-portal.health.gov.au/apis",
    "scope": "PBS API schedule, item and organisation metadata; all publisher copyright statements retained on each record.",
    "termsUrl": "https://www.health.gov.au/using-our-websites/copyright",
    "reviewedAt": "2026-09-30",
    "attribution": "Source: Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), Department of Health, Commonwealth of Australia. Copyright (c) 2024 Department of Health, Commonwealth of Australia.",
    "documentsIncluded": false
  },
  "limitations": [
    "Complete current PBS schedule, not a universal list of Australian medicines: private/non-subsidised and unlisted ARTG medicines are absent; PBS benefits may also include non-medicine supplies.",
    "PBS item codes identify prescribing rules and can be shared by brands or packs; li_item_id is the publisher’s unique listing (item and PharmCIS product/pack IDs), retained verbatim.",
    "The API has no ARTG registration, Poisons Standard schedule, legal Rx/OTC field or authorisation state: classification and administrative status remain unknown. Benefit codes U/R/A/S are reimbursement restrictions, not legal supply regimes.",
    "Supply-only packs remain searchable but PBS expressly says they may be dispensed and not newly prescribed. Extemporaneous ingredient rows are distinct from ready-prepared packs. Neither kind enters Doctofam’s prescription search.",
    "No PBS patient, prescriber or reimbursement eligibility is assessed. Restriction text, ATC/AMT mappings and document contents are not collected; publisher price fields remain in raw and are not used for prescribing.",
    "The API permits use and redistribution with copyright statements retained but prohibits modification. The referenced Health website notice also restricts commercial use and reformatting. Rights for Medifontis’s derived schema/commercial redistribution require an owner decision or written permission; this is not an open licence.",
    "Direct official HTTPS only; no proxy. The public subscription key is publisher-issued, shared by unregistered users and rate-limited to one request every twenty seconds. Rotation fails closed."
  ]
}

Use cases

What developers build with Medifontis

Clinical and e-prescribing software

Let clinicians find the exact authorised product and keep its national code with the prescription.

Pharmacy and e-commerce catalogues

Match your catalogue to national codes and keep product names and holders in sync with the regulator.

Patient and telehealth apps

Autocomplete medicine names in medication lists, reminders and intake forms.

AI assistants and agents

Ground answers about medicines in official records instead of model memory.

Market research and analytics

Track authorised products, holders and presentations across countries.

Veterinary software

Search veterinary medicines and their target species where regulators publish them.

Coverage

One API for 199 countries

The same endpoints and the same record shape for every country Medifontis covers.

🇮🇹 Italy 528.7K records 🇪🇸 Spain 88.7K records 🇫🇷 France 40K records 🇩🇪 Germany 24.4K records 🇬🇧 United Kingdom 492.2K records 🇺🇸 United States 1.5M records 🇨🇦 Canada 58.1K records 🇦🇺 Australia 18.4K records 🇧🇷 Brazil 31.2K records

See every country

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Where does the data come from?

From the official publishers listed above: PBS · APVMA. Medifontis collects each source as published and keeps every record independent; records from different sources are never merged or matched by name.

How fresh is the data?

Each source is collected every day and the country is published atomically once collection succeeds. Every record carries the time it was retrieved from its source.

Which codes can I search?

Names match anywhere in the text and identifiers match from their first character. For this country that covers PBS item codes and APVMA product numbers.

Can I use the data in my product?

Yes, within the licence of each source. Every record includes its licence and attribution text, and some publishers restrict commercial redistribution, so check the licences of the sources you rely on.

Is Medifontis medical advice?

No. Medifontis reports what official sources publish. It does not decide whether a medicine is suitable, available or reimbursed for a patient.

How do I get access?

Create an API key in a few seconds. It works immediately, for every country and every endpoint, and there is nothing to install.

Start building with official medicine data

Your API key works immediately with every country and every endpoint.

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