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Search medicines

GET /v1/drugs searches every record of every source in one country by name, active ingredient or identifier.

How matching works

  • Names match anywhere in the text, so part of a brand name finds it.
  • Identifiers match from their first character, so the beginning of a code finds every record whose code starts with it.
  • Accents and case are ignored.
  • The query is literal text, without wildcards or operators, and needs 3 to 120 characters.

Ranking

Exact matches come first, then records whose name starts with the query, then other matches; ties are ordered by record name.

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Searchable identifiers

These are the identifier schemes of each source of this country (Australia):

Source Publisher Records Identifiers
au.apvma.pubcris-veterinary-medicines
Veterinary medicines
Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) 3,315 apvma-product
au.pbs.items
PBS items
Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing 15,073 pbs-item pbs-li-item

Filter by record kind

A source can publish several kinds of records, such as packages, active ingredients or ATC classes. Pass kinds to keep only the ones your application uses. The filter applies before paging, so other kinds cannot push them off a page.

cURL
curl -G https://api.medifontis.com/v1/drugs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MEDIFONTIS_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "country=au" \
  --data-urlencode "q=paracetamol" \
  --data-urlencode "kinds=au.pbs.items:packages"

kinds takes up to 12 comma-separated sourceId:kind pairs, all of the requested country. A malformed pair, or one of another country, answers 400.

Filter by use and species

useDomain and species keep only human or veterinary medicines, or only those for a target species. Human and veterinary medicines.

Pagination

limit sets the page size, from 1 to 50 (default 20), and offset skips results, up to 10000. Each response carries nextOffset, the offset of the next page, or null on the last one.

Example

GET /v1/drugs
curl -G https://api.medifontis.com/v1/drugs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MEDIFONTIS_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "country=au" \
  --data-urlencode "q=paracetamol"
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 โ€” paracetamol 665 mg modified release tablet, 96",
      "names": [
        "APOHEALTH Osteo Relief Paracetamol 665 mg โ€” 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 โ€” 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."
      }
    },
    {
      "country": "au",
      "sourceId": "au.pbs.items",
      "id": "au:pbs:items:5343F_12218_485_2863_43597",
      "kind": "packages",
      "name": "APOHEALTH Osteo Relief Paracetamol 665 mg โ€” paracetamol 665 mg modified release tablet, 96",
      "names": [
        "APOHEALTH Osteo Relief Paracetamol 665 mg โ€” paracetamol 665 mg modified release tablet, 96",
        "APOHEALTH Osteo Relief Paracetamol 665 mg",
        "Paracetamol",
        "paracetamol 665 mg modified release tablet, 96"
      ],
      "identifiers": [
        {
          "value": "5343F",
          "scheme": "pbs-item"
        },
        {
          "value": "5343F_12218_485_2863_43597",
          "scheme": "pbs-li-item"
        }
      ],
      "data": {
        "form": "Tablet 665 mg (modified release)",
        "name": "APOHEALTH Osteo Relief Paracetamol 665 mg โ€” paracetamol 665 mg modified release tablet, 96",
        "brand": "APOHEALTH Osteo Relief Paracetamol 665 mg",
        "route": "Oral",
        "pbsCode": "5343F",
        "liItemId": "5343F_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
}