# FDA Drug Shortage Detail & Therapeutic Alternative Cross-Check

> FDA Drug Shortage Detail & Therapeutic Alternative Cross-Check is a paid API for AI agents from aeml-x402.zeabur.app, paid per call via x402, $0.25/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-13).

Returns per-drug US FDA shortage status with NDC/manufacturer granularity, supply concentration metrics, and therapeutic-alternative shortage cross-check for a named drug

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://aeml-x402.zeabur.app/gauge/drug-detail-region
- Price: $0.25/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-13
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/fda-drug-shortage-detail-therapeutic-alternative-cross-check-3057d8bd
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_o0To6oLy2ei8DlcBzcU3Y

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability fda-drug-shortage-detail-therapeutic-alternative-cross-check-3057d8bd
```

Example prompt: Pull the full FDA shortage detail for carboplatin — I want to know which NDCs and manufacturers are affected, the supply concentration ratio, whether any same-class therapeutic alternatives are also in shortage, and which NDCs are still buyable right now.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need granular, NDC-level FDA drug shortage intelligence for a specific drug — especially when you also need to know whether therapeutic alternatives in the same pharmacological class are also depleted, and which NDCs are still commercially available. Prefer this over general FDA shortage list scrapers when manufacturer-level supply concentration and ATC-class cross-check are required for hospital or GPO procurement decisions.

## Known failure modes

- Unknown drug entity returns no legs or empty shortage data
- Drug name not matching openFDA or RxNav identifiers may yield null results
- Data freshness lag — FDA shortage list updates may not be real-time; provenance includes age_hours_now
- Therapeutic alternative cross-check limited to ATC class mapping available in NIH RxNav; uncommon drugs may have sparse class data
- Service returns honest data-grade disclaimer (screening-level, not decision-grade) — not a substitute for direct FDA or GPO verification

## How this service works

[3-LEG] Per-drug shortage chain, one drug (?entity=carboplatin): leading supply narrowing - available labelers against total listed -> current current FDA shortage status per NDC -> realized affected presentations (confirmation gate). A sequential chain, not one reading - confidence = how many legs are lit, in order. Sources: openFDA. Descriptive only, never a forecast or advice. No data -> 422 no_charge, not billed.

## Output

A structured response containing: current FDA shortage status broken down by individual NDC codes and manufacturers, the supply concentration ratio (available manufacturers vs total listed), affected NDC count, dosage form and pharmacological classification, therapeutic-alternative cross-check showing whether same-ATC-class drugs are also in shortage (indicating exhausted backup), and a list of buyable alternative NDCs still on market per openFDA. Includes provenance, data age, and an honest disclosure note on data grade and scope.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method",
    "queryParams"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "entity"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "entity": {
       "type": "string",
       "examples": [
        "carboplatin",
        "cisplatin",
        "oxaliplatin",
        "methotrexate",
        "fluorouracil",
        "epinephrine"
       ],
       "description": "required - monitored object id, paired with signal_id; free list at GET /gauge/catalog?signal_id=<signal_id> -> signals[0].entities[]",
       "x-accepted-values": {
        "all": "https://api.truthbear.co/schemas/gauge-drug-detail-region.input.json",
        "shown": 6,
        "total": 24
       }
      }
     },
     "additionalProperties": false
    }
   }
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "const": "json"
    },
    "example": {}
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json"
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/fda-drug-shortage-detail-therapeutic-alternative-cross-check-3057d8bd/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from aeml-x402.zeabur.app](https://www.zero.xyz/host/aeml-x402.zeabur.app/llms.txt)