Historic Passive Immunizing Agents

This content is designed for use when populating an immunization history when the client and/or provider do not have the detail of the trade name of the agent administered OR the product has been discontinued and/or never licensed in Canada. It consists mainly of concepts from the Medicinal Entity class and from the SNOMED CT Pharmaceutical / biologic product hierarchy that are described using a “generic name”. With time, concepts represented by the trade name may be found in this subset when they are no longer in use in Canada but are required to capture historic data. 

Scope Definition:

The scope of this subset is passive immunizing agents used in Canada (generically described, i.e. without trade name), those obtained through special access programs (generically described), and agents that have been discontinued and/or never licensed in Canada (with trade name). This content is intended to be used when populating an immunization history when the client and/or provider does not have the detail of the trade name of the agent administered OR the product has been discontinued and/or never licensed in Canada. This subset will include concepts represented by a generic description for an agent that was previously administered to the client as may be expressed by the client or provider for an immunization history and concepts represented by the trade name for products that have been discontinued and/or never licensed in Canada. 

General rules applied to this section

  • This subset contains a list of SNOMED CT International concepts with a Canadian Edition description
  • NOTE: PHAC does not assign manufacturers or marketing authorization holders (MAH) abbreviations for the passive agents. When a manufacturer or a MAH also produce vaccines, the PHAC abbreviation is used. For those manufacturers or MAH without a PHAC abbreviation: an abbreviation is assigned by Infoway. For more information refer to Immunization Home Page - Main Reference Documentation section.

Fully Specified Name

For generic concepts

The format for the Fully Specified Name (FSN) is as follows:

  • Passive Agent Name antitoxin/immunoglobulin/antibody (medicinal product)
    • g.: Botulism antitoxin(medicinal product)
    • g.: Varicella-zoster immune globulin(medicinal product)

For concepts that include a Trade Name

  • Trade Name  Strength  Dose Form  Manufacturer or Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) (real clinical drug) 
    • e.g.: BCG Vaccine 1.5 microgram per 0.1 milliliter powder and diluent for suspension for injection Sanofi Pasteur Limited (real clinical drug)

FSN Components

Passive Agent Name

  • The word “antitoxin” or “immunoglobulin” or “Immune globulin“ is included in the FSN
    • This will be true for all Canadian Edition concepts but may not be for the international concepts. 
      • For example: Palivizumab (medicinal product)
    • The word that describes the type of agent may vary on international concepts.
      • For example: Human immunoglobulin product (medicinal product) vs Cytomegalovirus immune globulin (medicinal product)

(medicinal product)

This is the semantic tag representing the context of use within SNOMED CT: for any concept that is within the Pharmaceutical / biologic product hierarchy.784

Preferred Synonym (English)

For more details, please check Picklists guidelines.

The format for the Preferred Synonym (PS) is as follows:

For generic concepts

  • [PHAC/CHI Product Abbreviation] PassiveAgentName vaccine/immunoglobuline/antitoxin
    • e.g.: [BAtx] Botulism antitoxin 

For concepts that include a Trade Name

  • [PHAC/CHI Product Abbreviation] PassiveAgent Trade name (MAH if required)
    • e.g.: [BCG] BCG Vaccine (SP)

PS Components

PHAC/CHI Product Abbreviation

  • The PHAC/CHI abbreviation is used at the beginning of the PS in square brackets.

Passive Agent Name

  • The ingredients will be listed in order as per PHAC/CHI’s vaccine abbreviation.
  • The word “antibody” or “immunoglobulin” or “Immune globulin “or “antitoxin” is included in the PS.

Preferred Synonym (French)

  • La traduction des termes anglais.


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