Drug time series produces unexpected results

Question

I run two queries for the daily number of reports for bextra and avandia:

https://api.fda.gov/drug/event.json?search=receivedate:[20050101+TO+20050430]+AND+brand_name:bextra&count=receivedate

https://api.fda.gov/drug/event.json?search=receivedate:[20101001+TO+20101031]+AND+brand_name:avandia&count=receivedate

The avandia search produces the results I expect, the bextra search does not. The bextra search is run for the months prior to its withdrawal. I do not believe that there wasn't a single report in those months. Can anyone clarify what's going on?

Answer 1

The short answer is that when you do the following API call, you see that bextra shows up in the patient.drug.medicinalproduct instead of patient.drug.brand_name.

https://api.fda.gov/drug/event.json?search=receivedate:[20050101+TO+20050430]+AND+bextra&limit=100

So I suggest doing the following:

https://api.fda.gov/drug/event.json?search=receivedate:[20050101+TO+20050430]+AND+(medicinalproduct:bextra%20OR%20brand_name:bextra)&count=receivedate

You can read up on why this is at https://github.com/FDA/openfda/issues/22