Medifontis
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Quickstart

Get an API key, search a medicine and read the result. It takes about five minutes.

1. Get an API key

Create a key on the signup page. It starts with mf_live_ and works immediately for every country. Get your API key.

Store it in an environment variable on your server:

export MEDIFONTIS_API_KEY="mf_live_…"

Call GET /v1/drugs with a country code and a query:

GET /v1/drugs 
curl -G https://api.medifontis.com/v1/drugs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MEDIFONTIS_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "country=us" \
  --data-urlencode "q=atorvastatin"

3. Read the response

Each result is one record of one source. The fields you will use most are name, identifiers, sourceId and kind, data and licence.

First result 
{
  "country": "us",
  "sourceId": "us.fda.ndc",
  "id": "us:fda:ndc:0078-1371_b0a6d76c-cacb-4499-a18a-c8353db652f2",
  "kind": "ndc-products",
  "name": "atorvastatin",
  "data": {
    "name": "atorvastatin",
    "splId": "b0a6d76c-cacb-4499-a18a-c8353db652f2",
    "labels": [],
    "routes": [],
    "labeler": "Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation",
    "finished": false,
    "packaging": [
      {
        "description": "5 kg in 1 BAG (0078-1371-07)",
        "package_ndc": "0078-1371-07",
        "identifierStatus": "well-formed",
        "marketing_start_date": "19-SEP-13"
      }
    ],
    "productId": "0078-1371_b0a6d76c-cacb-4499-a18a-c8353db652f2",
    "useDomain": "unknown",
    "dosageForm": "POWDER",
    "productNdc": "0078-1371",
    "deaSchedule": null,
    "genericName": "atorvastatin",
    "productType": "BULK INGREDIENT",
    "listingStatus": "present-in-source-snapshot",
    "targetSpecies": [],
    "approvalStatus": "not-established-by-ndc-listing",
    "labelAssociation": "openFDA-harmonized-set-ids; not a product-level approval match",
    "marketingEndDate": null,
    "activeIngredients": [
      {
        "name": "ATORVASTATIN CALCIUM TRIHYDRATE",
        "strength": "1 kg/kg"
      }
    ],
    "applicationNumber": null,
    "marketingCategory": "BULK INGREDIENT",
    "stateRestrictions": {
      "status": "not-collected",
      "observations": []
    },
    "useDomainEvidence": {
      "basis": "unreviewed",
      "field": null,
      "value": null,
      "version": 1,
      "sourceId": "us.fda.ndc"
    },
    "marketingStartDate": "20130919",
    "targetSpeciesStatus": "not-reported",
    "prescriptionCategory": "unknown",
    "harmonizedIdentifiers": {},
    "listingExpirationDate": "20261231"
  },
  "region": null,
  "retrievedAt": "2026-10-20T10:45:50.815Z",
  "sourceUrl": "https://api.fda.gov/download.json",
  "licence": {
    "id": "CC0-1.0",
    "url": "https://open.fda.gov/license/",
    "attribution": "U.S. Food and Drug Administration / openFDA",
    "documentsIncluded": false
  },
  "limitations": [
    "Complete published endpoint, not a claim that FDA lists every medicine used in the US.",
    "NDC listing, marketing category and application-number assertions are not proof of approval.",
    "Tentative approval, discontinued products and historical submissions remain distinct.",
    "Official document links only; linked documents have not been relicensed or mirrored.",
    "No state restrictions, individual eligibility, or prescribing recommendations inferred.",
    "UNII and RxNorm identifiers are source-asserted openFDA harmonization at record scope; arrays do not pair identifiers to individual products or ingredients, and are not GSID/PhPID or substitution evidence."
  ],
  "names": [
    "atorvastatin",
    "ATORVASTATIN CALCIUM TRIHYDRATE"
  ],
  "identifiers": [
    {
      "value": "0078-1371",
      "scheme": "ndc-product"
    },
    {
      "value": "0078-1371-07",
      "scheme": "ndc-package"
    },
    {
      "value": "b0a6d76c-cacb-4499-a18a-c8353db652f2",
      "scheme": "spl-id"
    }
  ]
}

4. Page through results

nextOffset is the offset of the next page, or null on the last one. Pass it as offset to read the next page:

Node.js 
async function* searchAll(country, q) {
  let offset = 0
  while (offset !== null) {
    const params = new URLSearchParams({ country, q, limit: '50', offset: String(offset) })
    const response = await fetch(`https://api.medifontis.com/v1/drugs?${params}`, {
      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.MEDIFONTIS_API_KEY}` },
    })
    if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Medifontis ${response.status}`)
    const page = await response.json()
    yield* page.results
    offset = page.nextOffset
  }
}

Next steps

Typeahead suggestions Autocomplete medicine names as users type. Records and provenance Every field of a record, and how to cite it. Errors and rate limits Status codes, limits and retries. API reference Every endpoint, parameter and field.