# fda_search_approvals Search pilot-sponsor Drugs@FDA approval events with bounded cursor paging. | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Category | FDA (`fda`) | | Exposure | public | | MCP tool | `fda_search_approvals` | | Documentation | https://www.agentdatasets.com/docs/tools/fda_search_approvals | ## Description Search pilot-sponsor Drugs@FDA approval events with bounded cursor paging. The shared envelope echoes filters in `data`, returns one original or efficacy-supplement event per `data.matches` item, reports `source="openfda_drugsfda"` and the freshest export date on the page in `meta`, and supplies `pagination.next_cursor` when more events remain. Each match includes the application number, catalog-resolved sponsor block (company, ticker, key, and published sponsor name), brand/generic names, submission status/class/date/priority fields, and per-event source/as_of attribution. Use this to discover approval history by sponsor, drug name, or approval date. Pass application numbers from matches to `fda_get_approvals` for product and full submission detail. The default limit is 10 and maximum is 50. Pass `pagination.next_cursor` back unchanged to continue; stop when `has_more` is false. Errors are `out_of_coverage` for a sponsor outside the pilot catalog and `bad_parameter` for an empty drug, reversed date range, invalid cursor, or service-level invalid limit (schema-invalid bounds are rejected before dispatch). Example: `fda_search_approvals(sponsor="VRTX", drug="ivacaftor", limit=5)`. ## Parameters Input schema advertised to MCP clients and mirrored by the REST query string. | Parameter | In | Type | Required | Default | Constraints | Description | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | sponsor | input | `string \| null` | no | null | — | Optional pilot sponsor ticker, catalog key, or exact company name, matched case-insensitively. A sponsor outside the pilot catalog returns out_of_coverage; a covered sponsor with no approvals returns an empty page. | | drug | input | `string \| null` | no | null | — | Optional case-insensitive substring matched against curated brand and generic drug names. Omit to include every drug for the selected sponsor universe. | | approved_after | input | `string (date) \| null` | no | null | — | Optional inclusive lower bound on approval_date (YYYY-MM-DD). Rows without an approval date do not match when this filter is present. | | approved_before | input | `string (date) \| null` | no | null | — | Optional inclusive upper bound on approval_date (YYYY-MM-DD). Rows without an approval date do not match when this filter is present. | | limit | input | `integer` | no | 10 | min 1, max 50 | Approval events to return, newest first (1–50); default 10. | | cursor | input | `string \| null` | no | null | — | Opaque pagination.next_cursor from the previous response; keep sponsor, drug, approved_after, and approved_before constant while paging. Omit for the newest events. | ## Provenance - `openfda_drugsfda` — U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Drugs@FDA application, product, original-approval, and efficacy-supplement history for the pilot sponsor universe (Public domain, dedicated under CC0 1.0 Universal (cc0-1.0)). See https://www.agentdatasets.com/docs/attribution.md Dataset registry: `fda_approvals`.