Retrieve Drug Products from Health Canada Drug Product Database

Retrieves information on all drug products listed in the Health Canada Drug Product Database (DPD) using the RESTful API endpoint /drug/drugproduct.

Optionally, a partial product name can be provided to filter the results to products that contain the search term in their brand name.

Usage

get_hc_drug_products(name = NULL)

Source

Health Canada Drug Product Database (DPD) API: https://health-products.canada.ca/api/documentation/dpd-documentation-en.html

Arguments

name: Optional. A character string representing a partial or complete name of the drug product to filter results. If omitted, returns all available products.

Value

A tibble with the following columns:

drug_code: Unique code identifying the drug product
class_name: Class of drug (e.g., Human, Veterinary)
din: Drug Identification Number (DIN)
brand_name: Brand or trade name of the product
number_of_ais: Number of active ingredients
ai_group_no: Active ingredient group number
company_name: Manufacturer name
last_update_date: Date of last update in the database

Details

This function sends a GET request to the Health Canada Drug Product Database API. It supports caching via the memoise package to avoid redundant calls, and respects a rate limit between successive API requests.

If the API request fails, returns no matches, or returns an error status code, the function returns NULL with an informative message.

Note

Requires an internet connection.

Examples

if (interactive()) {
  # Retrieve all products
  get_hc_drug_products()

  # Retrieve products matching a partial name
  get_hc_drug_products("acetaminophen")
}