Searching for label by NDC

Question

I'm trying to use the label API to search for a specific OTC drug. Lets take CVS's 10mg Loratadine for example. The NDC number is 59779-612-75.

Based on the API docs I think the right query should be:

https://api.fda.gov/drug/label.json?search=openfda.product_ndc:59779-612-75&limit=100

That returns several hundred results, none of which have a openfda.product_ndc field that matches. Most are substrings or similar strings. The correct product is in there, but the product_ndc doesn't match. The package_ndc field (which isn't documented) does.

None of the variations on NDC substring seem to work either, all return several hundred results: https://api.fda.gov/drug/label.json?search=openfda.product_ndc:59779-612&limit=100 https://api.fda.gov/drug/label.json?search=openfda.package_ndc:59779-612-75&limit=100 https://api.fda.gov/drug/label.json?search=openfda.package_ndc:59779-612&limit=100

A lookup on the following site returns exactly one correct match: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/ndc/dsp_searchresult.cfm

Am I missing something or is the API behaving a bit strangely?

Answer 1

I think if you use quotes around the product_ndc field it should give you the results you are looking for.

https://api.fda.gov/drug/label.json?search=openfda.product_ndc:"59779-612"&limit=100

Link for reference:

https://open.fda.gov/api/reference/#exact-matches