Summary Safety Review - Clozapine - Assessing the effectiveness of monitoring for low numbers of white blood cells

Clozapine is a prescription drug authorized for sale in Canada to manage symptoms of schizophrenia when other drugs have not helped. Clozapine was developed in the 1960s. In 1975, clozapine was removed from the Canadian market because of reports of life-threatening infections and deaths linked with low numbers of white blood cells (i.e., agranulocytosis). Clozapine was re-introduced to the Canadian market in 1991, but patients must be enrolled in a patient registry program to monitor their white blood cell levels before their next prescription can be filled.

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Additional Info

Field	Value
Last Updated	April 17, 2026, 17:45 (UTC)
Created	April 17, 2026, 17:45 (UTC)
criticality_level	[]
geographic_scope	[]
open_canada_collection	publication
open_canada_date_published	2018-07-26 00:00:00
open_canada_keywords	{"fr": ["Examen sommaire de l'innocuité", "Clozapine", "évaluation", "efficacité", "surveillance", "taux de globules blancs", "faible nombre de globules blancs", "agranulocytose", "symptômes de la schizophrénie", "infections et décès potentiellement mortels", "programme de registre des patients"], "en": ["Summary Safety Review", "Clozapine", "assessing", "effectiveness", "monitoring", "white-blood-cells levels", "low-numbers of white-blood-cells", "agranulocytosis", "symptoms of schizophrenia", "life-threatening infections-and-deaths", "patient registry program"]}
open_canada_subject	["health_and_safety"]
sensitivity_level	unrestricted
title_fr	Résumé de l’examen de l’innocuité - Clozapine - Évaluation de l’efficacité de la surveillance d’un faible taux de globules blancs
update_frequency	as_needed