BioCatalystFeed

BioCatalystFeed

Website: https://biocat.ai · Contact: contact@biocat.ai

An open-source catalyst feed for biotech: see what changed across clinical trials, FDA and EMA actions, NIH grants, papers/preprints and SEC filings for the companies and drugs you follow. Use it as a CLI, as an MCP server for AI agents (Claude, Cursor, …), or as an Apify actor.

⚠️ Not investment, legal or medical advice. Data may be incomplete, delayed or wrong; PDUFA dates are unverified

candidates from SEC filings. Always check the linked primary source.

What it does

Optional global coverage (`--global` / `include_global`). Off by default. When you turn it on, BCF also links to records in trial registries outside the US and EU, such as China's ChiCTR and other WHO-listed national registries, and flags papers from other jurisdictions. These records may come from research run under regulatory, ethics and data standards different from, and sometimes lighter than, those of the US or EU. They are labelled "non-FDA/EMA registry". The option is for users who want to see everything that is out there. Inclusion is not an endorsement or recommendation and is not medical, legal or investment advice.

Records are links (registry ID + URL, from ClinicalTrials.gov secondary IDs); papers get jurisdiction_flag from author-affiliation countries ("unknown" when none is found). Details: bcf --global --help or docs/GLOBAL.md.

Across tools: --exclude TERM … to drop noise, --rank for relevance ordering, and --rss / --json-feed digest files on every watch (local files you can serve or feed into any reader; nothing is emailed). Webhook alerts (0.4.1): --webhook URL (repeatable) on every watch POSTs the changes when something changed: --webhook-format json (default; signed with x-bcf-signature: sha256= when BCF_WEBHOOK_SECRET is set), slack or discord (incoming-webhook text); --webhook-always also posts empty runs. Failures are reported on stderr and never stop the watch.

Quickstart

python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate   # macOS/Homebrew Python blocks global pip installs (PEP 668)

pip install biocatalystfeed

no venv needed: uvx --from biocatalystfeed bcf --help or pipx install biocatalystfeed

bcf trials search --sponsor "Viking Therapeutics" --phase PHASE3 bcf trials search --sponsor TERN # known names/tickers are alias-resolved (CT.gov: "Terns, Inc."); --no-aliases to send as typed bcf papers search --drug resmetirom --since 2026-09-01 --exclude mice rat --rank bcf grants search --pi "Ioannou, George N" --since 2024-01-01 --no-future bcf sec pdufa MDGL --since 2023-01-01 bcf profile Lilly MDGL "Viking Therapeutics" --md profiles.md bcf ema search --status Opinion --since 2026-09-01 # latest CHMP opinions (EU) bcf adcom upcoming --area drugs biologics # scheduled FDA advisory committee meetings bcf crl search --since 2026-01-01 --status Unapproved # FDA complete response letters, newest first bcf orange-book loe --company "Novo Nordisk" # last listed patent/exclusivity per NDA (LOE dates) bcf orange-book search --upcoming-days 90 --kind exclusivity # exclusivities expiring in the next 90 days bcf fda-decisions search --upcoming 90 # PDUFA dates (8-K) + AdComs in the next 90 days, soonest first bcf fda-decisions search --company BBIO # all FDA decision events for a ticker (pdufa, adcom, approval, crl) bcf fda-decisions search --drug semaglutide --kinds approval crl --since 2025-01-01 bcf readouts search --upcoming 60 --condition obesity # industry Ph2/3 primary completions in the next 60 days bcf readouts search --sponsor VKTX --upcoming 720 --md vktx.md # one company's readouts + a Markdown digest bcf readouts at-risk --condition NASH --html risk.html # Trials at Risk (stopped / overdue / delayed / enrollment shortfall)

watches: first run = baseline, later runs report what changed (cron it daily)

bcf trials --db bcf.db watch --name obesity --condition obesity --phase PHASE3 --rss obesity.rss bcf trials --db bcf.db changes --name obesity --min-severity critical # terminations, endpoint rewrites bcf readouts --db bcf.db watch --name ph3-90d --phases PHASE3 --upcoming 90 --digest-html readouts.html --json-feed readouts.feed.json # notify: new readouts, date slips, ESTIMATED->ACTUAL bcf fda-decisions --db bcf.db watch --name obesity-fda --condition obesity --json-feed fda.feed.json # notify: new/moved PDUFA dates, AdComs, approvals, CRLs bcf papers --db bcf.db watch --name mdgl --affiliation "Madrigal Pharmaceuticals" --json-feed mdgl.feed.json bcf readouts --db bcf.db watch --name ph3-90d --webhook "$SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL" --webhook-format slack # push alerts to Slack/Discord/any URL

Global flags such as `--db` go **after the tool name and before the subcommand**: `bcf trials --db bcf.db changes`, not `bcf --db bcf.db trials changes` or `bcf trials changes --db bcf.db`.

bcf trials changes prints a readable one-line-per-change summary; add --json for one JSON object per line. PubMed --since/--until filter on the publication date shown in the output (Europe PMC uses first-publication date).

The old commands (trialwatch, fdawatch, grantwatch, paperwatch, secwatch, trialwatch-mcp) still work.

MCP server

{"mcpServers": {"biocatalystfeed": {"command": "uvx", "args": ["biocatalystfeed", "mcp"],

"env": {"BIOCATALYSTFEED_DB": "/path/to/bcf.db"}}}}

(or point `command` at an installed `biocatalystfeed-mcp`). Listed in the official MCP Registry as

io.github.biocatalystfeed/biocatalystfeed. Tools include search_trials, sponsor_pipeline, fda_approvals, company_profile, search_grants, search_papers, sec_pdufa_mentions, ema_medicines, fda_adcom_meetings, fda_complete_response_letters, fda_decisions (FDA decision calendar), readout_calendar (trial readout calendar), trials_at_risk, snapshot_* (incl. snapshot_fda_decisions, snapshot_readouts) / *_changes_since, and changes_feed (RSS / JSON Feed / Markdown / HTML).

Provenance on every record (0.3.6). Every record returned by every MCP tool (stdio and hosted), and by bcf readouts / bcf fda-decisions / bcf trials search, carries verified_as_of (UTC), source_url (the official record or API URL), verify_hash (sha256: of the record's canonical JSON, excluding the provenance and ticker fields; re-check with biowatch.provenance.check(record)), and, where a company is named, ticker, ticker_confidence (1.0 source-given, 0.95 alias table, 0.9 SEC exact name, 0.6 SEC name prefix, 0 none) and ticker_method.

Configuration

How it compares

Facts about DataLookout are from datalookout.com, its /citeline-alternative and /clinical-trial-monitoring pages (checked 2026-10-21 PT). We have not tested their product. Fuller, cited comparison: docs/COMPARISON.md; three-way matrix incl. DropwatchHQ Bio Catalyst: samples/competitor_matrix.md.

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