Ferring and Privacy

Thank you for visiting www.ferring.com.au. At Ferring, your privacy is important to us and we are committed to ensuring our data protection practices adhere to Australian privacy requirements.

Ferring is a specialised biopharmaceutical company undertaking research and development to identify innovative products in the fields of reproductive medicine and woman's health, urology/oncology, gastroenterology, orthopaedics and endocrinology and manufacturing, marketing and selling its products.

We provide information to consumers about our medicines to help them use our products effectively, but this does not replace the advice from a healthcare professional. We also provide information about our products and related seminars or disease awareness programs to Australian healthcare professionals.

This Privacy Policy provides information as to how Ferring may collect, hold and process your personal data (information), and describes the ways in which we ensure your personal data is protected in accordance with the applicable laws, regulations and requirements. We collect this information when we ask you for it and you, or when others on your behalf authorised by you, provide it to us.

Ferring’s system for complying with Australian privacy requirements includes:

• our commitment to compliance with privacy requirements;
• our policy and approach to privacy, as explained in this Privacy Notice;
• our resources allocated to privacy, including our technology systems and services; and
• our people and the training and education we undertake.

This Privacy Policy applies only to this website and the personal management practices of Ferring in Australia, therefore if you visit another website related to or recommended by Ferring, please consult the privacy policy on the respective website.

Contents:

• What is personal data
• Who can be considered as a data subject
• How Ferring may use your personal data
• Cookies
• Retention of personal data
• Your rights
• How Ferring may share or transfer your personal data
• Links to other websites
• Security information
• Children
• Modifications
• How to contact us

What is personal data

Personal data means all information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual and includes the meaning given to “personal information” under the Australian Privacy Act (1988) (Cth). This may include name, postal address, phone number, email address or any other information which may be used to identify you personally such as about your health and medical treatment.

If you are a health care professional, we also collect information such as your position and area of speciality, reports of adverse events that you have made, details of your participation in our seminars or conferences and amounts paid (or value of benefits received) for specific services you may provide to Ferring from time to time.

Who can be considered as a data subjec

A data subject is any identified or identifiable individual (or, in Australia, also an individual who is reasonably identifiable) about whom personal data is being processed. If you are not already a data subject of Ferring, there may be opportunities during your visit to this website whereby you provide personal data voluntarily, and therefore become a data subject. Ferring will only collect personal data from you during your visit to this website if and when you voluntarily provide it.

How Ferring may use your personal data

Ferring Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd (“Ferring”), as the data controller, on behalf of affiliates of the Ferring Group will only process your personal data where there is a legal basis for doing so, and where it is necessary to carry out the purpose for which it was collected. The legal basis for processing your personal data will depend on the purpose for which the information was collected, as described below:

1. Personal data may be processed if necessary for our legitimate business interests including our efforts to expand and improve our business. Examples include::
• to respond to you regarding an inquiry in the following categories: media; partnerships; development of business relationship; and any other general enquiries;
• to process and respond to enquiries regarding data privacy and your privacy rights;
• to process and assess reported cases for potential misconduct and/or violation of the Ferring Philosophy as well as other applicable Policies and SOPs;
• to operate programmes and forums in different media in which you are able to share information, including your personal information, with us and publicly (on the Terms applicable);
• to provide health care professionals with information about our products and related activities (including conferences, seminars, or other events organised by Ferring) that we consider may be of interest to you, unless you tell us not to do so;
• if you apply for employment with us, to consider your application;
• providing information about our products, and about health circumstances and medical conditions where doctors and other healthcare professionals may prescribe and recommend them to assist patients; or
• providing assistance in relation to health care professional treatment of you with our products;
• responding to inquiries about and dealing with possible problems relating to our products including communicating product safety information;
• for any other legitimate business purposes that involve use of personal information.

  The above is a non-exhaustive overview only of how we may collect and use your personal information, and more detail may be provided to you in a separate privacy notice when you contact us or, where relevant, in a separate contractual arrangement with you.

2. Personal data may be processed when necessary to comply with applicable laws and regulations such as:
• to comply with laws within or outside your country of residence,
• to comply with a legal process or in response to a court order to produce certain personal data.
3. Personal data may be collected and processed if necessary for vital interests and to comply with applicable safety obligations within the pharmaceutical sector such as:
• to process a report regarding side effects, adverse drug reactions, adverse events or other safety information relation to a Ferring drug/product. For information regarding the processing of special category data for this purpose please see the Pharmacovigilance Privacy Notice.

Your personal data will only be used for the specific purpose for which is was collected and will not be used for any other purpose without notifying you in advance and/or obtaining the appropriate consent.

Where you prefer that we do not collect your personal information, we may not be able to provide assistance and undertake activities that we would otherwise provide or undertake.

Cookies

When you visit this website, data about your use of the website may be collected using Google Analytics. This tracking technology uses cookies to collect aggregate data about website usage and activity, such as how many users visit the website and how often. This data may be shared with a third-party service provider in order to further improve our web services. No personal data can be accessed or collected via these cookies. The use of this type of technology shall comply with applicable privacy and data protection laws and regulations (including in the EU, where applicable,  the current E-Privacy Regulation).

Retention of personal data

Ferring will follow the appropriate actions to ensure your personal data is retained only for the period required to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy. Ferring will only retain personal data for a longer period if required or permitted by law or by applicable  pharmaceutical industry requirements.

Your rights

If and when we collect, hold and process your personal data, you will be afforded specific rights as a data subject. Ferring will give effect to these rights in accordance with the applicable Australian national and state/territory privacy and data protection laws and as explained further below.

In addition, rights which may be available to you under UK and EU laws include:

• Right to access and rectification: you have the right to request a copy of the information we hold about you, as well as the right to request the correction of the personal data we hold if it is inaccurate.
• Right to erasure and restriction of processing: you have the right to request the erasure of your personal data or for the restriction of processing your personal data. These rights are limited and will apply only in certain circumstances and where no exemptions apply.
• Right to data portability: you have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold, as well as the right to request this data be transferred to another controller. This right is subject to certain conditions and may not apply, for example, if not permitted for reasons of public interest, or is not technically feasible.
• Right to object: you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data. If the data is processed for reasons of public interest, scientific or statistical purposes, you may still object and it will be our responsibility to demonstrate the legitimacy of processing the data.
• You have the right to contact or lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.

If you would like to submit a request in relation to a data subject right, please use the Data Subject Contact Form. We will respond to an incoming request as soon as possible.

How Ferring may transfer or share your personal data

Your personal data may be transferred to other locations in which Ferring maintain facilities (including Ferring affiliates, contractors, partners or agents), where there are legitimate grounds for such a transfer, such as a valid business reason. Such locations may include countries outside Australia. Ferring is headquartered in Saint-Prex, Switzerland and has service providers in other countries. Our research centres are located in Denmark, USA, Israel, India, China and Scotland. Any such transfers will be safeguarded by internal international data transfer agreements, to ensure that your personal data is protected in accordance with the applicable European and national and state/territory privacy and data protection laws.

Ferring may, in certain circumstances, share your personal data with third parties, such as our vendors, contractors, partners or agents, if necessary to achieve the notified purposes, or if such third parties are assisting Ferring with the processing of the data. Ferring will only disclose personal data about you to a third party in the following circumstances:

• relevant consent has been provided by you;
• where applicable, as a result of a request by you as a data subject;
• whereby there is a legal basis for the disclosure of the data and you have been provided with suitable notice of this;
• where we are required to do so under applicable laws or as a result of a court order; or
• where Ferring decides to sell, buy, merge or otherwise reorganise its business structure.

Ferring will never sell your information to a third party.

Links to other websites

This website may provide links to associated or external websites. Ferring is not responsible for the content, quality, data processing activities or data protection practices of any other website. If you visit another website, please consult the privacy policy and any privacy notice and privacy settings of the respective website.

Security information

Ferring maintains a number of appropriate technical and organizational security measures to safeguard your personal data from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, accidental destruction or loss. For example, where appropriate, Ferring is committed to the encryption, anonymization or pseudonymization of personal data, and personal data will be stored securely in a designated system. Our internal policies and procedures are designed to prioritise and promote the protection of personal data.

While our data security measures are continually evaluated and updated, the security of data transferred via the internet from a computer or other device cannot be guaranteed and you are encouraged to take steps to protect yourself online and against unauthorized use of your passwords, and mobile devices, as well as installing the appropriate firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware protections for your computer. If you reasonably believe that there has been unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal information, please contact us immediately (see below).

A non-exhaustive list of possible data incidents may include:

• a lost/stolen laptop
• an external hacker
• an email containing personal data sent in error
• employees access personal information they are not legitimately authorised/required to access to perform their duties/functions
• information lost in transit
• documents left in unsecured location.

If you suspect any security compromise or detect vulnerabilities, it is essential to report these data incidents immediately by using the Data Subject Contact Form.

Under applicable laws in Australia, a data breach is not required to be notified to the local Supervisory Authority and to data subjects unless it is an 'eligible data breach’. For this reason, in case of an incident or potential data breach, we will take all reasonable steps within 30 days to determine whether an eligible data breach has occurred by conducting the appropriate check (assessment), and respond according to the requirements of applicable law.

Children

Ferring is committed to protecting the privacy of children. This website is not directed to individuals under the age of 13, and we request that these individuals not provide Personal Information through the website.

Where personal data relates to a data subject who is under the age of 13, consent shall be required from their legal representative. Ferring shall make all available and reasonable efforts to verify that the necessary consent has been obtained in such cases.

Modifications

Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be communicated at this location. We recommend you consult our Privacy Policy when revisiting our website, https://www.ferring.com.au/, to review any changes and to keep informed about our ongoing commitment to respecting the right to privacy and to providing the highest possible level of data protection.

Contact information

If you have any questions or comments regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact Ferring via enquiries@ferring.com or contact us at the following address:

Ferring Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd
Suite 2, Level 1, Building 1
Pymble Corporate Centre
20 Bridge Street
PYMBLE NSW 2073 AUSTRALIA
Phone: +612 9497 2300 (Toll free :1800 33 77 46)

We will respond to your request for access to personal information we hold about you as soon as we reasonably can, including if we are unable to provide you with access (such as when we no longer hold the information). We do not impose any charge for a request for access, but we may charge you a reasonable fee for our costs associated with providing you with access and retrieval costs.

We do our best to keep our records of your personal information up to date and accurate, and to delete or amend personal information that is no longer needed. Please keep us informed of any changes to your information, like your contact details or address, to ensure your details remain up-to-date.

For complaints about privacy, we will establish in consultation with you a reasonable process, including time frames, for seeking to resolve your complaint.

This Privacy Policy was last updated March 2024