public-service · DailyMed database freshness
How to Check the Freshness of DailyMed's Drug Label Database
DailyMed publishes a second-precision timestamp and a record count through its web service, and the same count appears in plain language on its homepage.
In this article
Updated: Sources: 2
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What matters now
- DailyMed's homepage states in plain prose that its database contains 159,058 submitted FDA drug labeling records.
- DailyMed's SPL web service returns a second-precision, named-timezone publish timestamp for the database.
- The web service's total_elements field also reports 159,058 records, matching the homepage figure.
- Matching counts across two independent public surfaces let a reader confirm DailyMed's stated database size is internally consistent.
- This consistency check does not evaluate whether any single drug label is current or reflects marketed products.
DailyMed, the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s public repository of FDA drug labeling, publishes a machine-readable, second-precision, named-timezone timestamp of when its database was last published, and the same record-count figure that travels with that timestamp also appears in plain-language prose on the DailyMed homepage. A reader can check both surfaces and see that they agree, without needing to interpret any individual drug label.
This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.
Key points
- DailyMed’s homepage states a specific record count in plain prose: “The DailyMed database contains 159058 labeling submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by companies” (DailyMed homepage).
- DailyMed’s SPL web service returns a second-precision, named-timezone publish stamp:
"db_published_date": "Sep 04, 2026 07:43:12PM EST"(SPL web service). - The same web service response carries a matching record-count field:
"total_elements": 159058(SPL web service). - The homepage figure and the web service’s
total_elementsfigure are the same number (homepage; SPL web service). - This check only confirms that the database’s own currency stamp and record count are internally consistent — it does not evaluate any single label’s content.
What the homepage tells a reader
Anyone opening DailyMed’s homepage in a browser can read a plain-English statement of the database’s size: “The DailyMed database contains 159058 labeling submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by companies.” (https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/) No technical tools or API knowledge are required to see this figure — it is ordinary page text.
Web service timestamp
The same database exposes a machine-readable web service. A request to its SPL endpoint returns a JSON response that includes a currency stamp with second-level precision and an explicit named timezone: "db_published_date": "Sep 04, 2026 07:43:12PM EST" (https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/services/v2/spls.json?pagesize=3). This stamp tells a reader (or an automated tool) precisely when the underlying database was last published, down to the second, without ambiguity about which time zone the stamp uses.
The two counts match
The same web service response that carries the timestamp also carries a record-count field: "total_elements": 159058 (SPL web service). That figure is identical to the number quoted in the homepage’s plain-language sentence. The homepage and web-service response therefore display the same stated database size.
Check limits
Confirming that the homepage count and the web service count agree, and reading the second-precision publish timestamp, describes only those database-level fields. It does not evaluate the content or status of an individual label. The homepage calls the figure a count of submitted labeling records; this article does not treat it as a count of products on the market.