Privacy Statement

Privacy Statement

Amgen Australia Pty Ltd (“Amgen Australia,” “we” or “us”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amgen Inc., is a leading biopharmaceutical company involved in the research, development and marketing of biopharmaceuticals in Australia. This Privacy Statement (which may otherwise be referred to in Amgen Australia materials and communications as the ‘Privacy Policy’) explains what personal information Amgen Australia collects, uses and discloses about individuals and our commitment to protect that information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 as amended by the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012. It also explains how an individual may access, update and correct their personal information or make a complaint around the handling of such information.

For purposes of this Privacy Statement, the term “Amgen” shall refer to Amgen Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates, including Amgen Australia.

We may change the terms of this Privacy Statement at any time by posting revisions to our website. We will let you know of any changes to this Statement by posting a notification on our website.

• I. Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

  A. Information About Participants in Clinical Trials

  You may choose to participate in clinical trials of biopharmaceutical products as part of Amgen Australia’s medical research and development programs. These trials are conducted by hospitals or other institutions, but are funded and supported by Amgen Australia. If you participate in one of these clinical trials, you will be asked to provide express written consent to the manner in which your personal information will be collected, used, transferred, accessed and/or disclosed in connection with the research related to the trial.

  Generally, Amgen Australia only receives pseudonymized information relating to participants in clinical trial from physicians and investigators conducting the trial. Pseudonymization means that directly identifiable information such as your name and residential address are replaced with a unique reference number (a pseudonym), referred to as a subject identification number. Amgen Australia does not have the ability to tie a subject identification number to your name.

  The kinds of information provided to Amgen Australia about you for the purposes of conducting a clinical trial include health information about you relevant to the conduct and audit of the clinical trial, such as your medical history, medication use, results of tests and scans and reports of adverse events.

  Personal identifiers, such as your name and residential address, are not collected by Amgen Australia except in limited circumstances and only with your express consent or where required by law. These circumstances include certain clinical trials where Amgen Australia employees or its authorized contractors may view personal information at a clinical trial site to audit and/or monitor the trial and to comply with regulatory requirements.

  Your personal information may be disclosed to and reviewed by members of the human research ethics committee responsible for the trial as part of their responsibility to provide oversight for the study, which includes monitoring and audit, or other institutional review boards located in other countries; your personal medical practitioner; regulatory agencies and health authorities for review and inspection and in support of regulatory filings in Australia and in other countries; a central vendor for analysis, interpretation, and reporting results back to us and/or the study doctor; and others where required or authorised by law.

  We may also disclose your personal information to third parties that assist us in analysing the results of the study. These third parties may be located in countries outside of Australia including the United States of America (“U.S.”), Canada and countries in Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. In such cases Amgen Australia will take reasonable steps to ensure that your information is protected.

  If you are a participant in a clinical trial who provides information to us through our website, you should also read the section titled 'C. Information About Users of Our Website'.

  B. Information About Patients

  If you contact Amgen regarding your experience in using one of our products, including to report an adverse event (‘side effect’) or a defect or quality issue with the Amgen product you received, we may ask you for specific facts, including patient initials, age, and gender, and prescribing physician. We may use the information you provide in submitting reports to regulatory agencies as required by law (e.g., the U.S. Federal Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration and the New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority). We also may use the information to contact the prescribing physician to follow up regarding an adverse event (‘side effect’) involving use of our product.

  You should know that we may disclose your personal information to third parties performing work on our behalf, such as our call centre operators and other entities that assist us in responding to and processing your enquiries and product experience reports. These third parties may be located outside of Australia. We may also disclose your personal information to our related affiliates in the United States of America, Canada, and countries in Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, who assist us in responding to your enquiries.

  C. Information About Health Care Professionals and their Staff

  If you are a health care professional we may collect personal information about you in order to: conduct clinical trials;

  • inform you of our events, products, new products and product recalls;
  • fulfil our statutory pharmacovigilance reporting obligations;
  • organise your travel for our events and third party educational events sponsored by us;
  • improve our products and services and marketing activities, including by conducting market research;
  • manage our relationship with you; and
  • comply with our reporting obligations pursuant to the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct (Code) as further detailed in Section I D, below.

  This personal information includes such things as your name, contact details, specialty and qualifications, professional association membership number, details of your hospital or medical and consulting room, whether you are a member of an Amgen advisory board or an advisory board of a similar organisation, and your bank details (if you provide services to us). If you attend one of our events and/or third party educational events sponsored by us and we arrange your travel, we may also collect your passport details and airline frequent flyer numbers.

  We may collect this personal information from you (such as when you register for one of the events) or your representatives, as well as customer relationship management companies and marketing agencies.

  For the purposes referred to above, we may disclose your personal information to customer relationship management companies, third party event organisers, third party suppliers who assist us in providing our products and services (such as booking your travel and analysing personal information to improve sales targeting and recommendations), market research agencies, and others where required or authorised by law. If you are attending an international event, these services providers may be located in the country in which the event is located.

  We also collect personal information regarding investigators and their staff involved in clinical trials. This information will be retained by Amgen Australia in a database. The database is held by Amgen Australia’s parent company (Amgen Inc. in Thousand Oaks, California, U.S.) and accessible worldwide by Amgen. Amgen may use the database for purposes including but not limited to matching investigators to suitable trials, monitoring trial progress, and assessing administration and conduct of trial sites. Amgen may also share with clinical research organisations world-wide data held in the database regarding investigators where Amgen engages such organisations to assist in the conduct and management of a trial. Further we may use this information to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including where required, disclosure to regulatory agencies. (e.g., the U.S. Federal Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration and the New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority).

  We may also disclose your personal information to third parties outside of Australia who provide us technical support and assist us in enhancing our systems. In such cases Amgen Australia will comply with applicable laws to which Amgen Australia is subject to ensure that your information is protected.

  If you are a health care professional who provides information to us through our website, you should also read the section below.

  D. Medicines Australia Code of Conduct Financial Transparency Requirements

  Amgen is committed to compliance with the Code in reporting Transfers of Value (TOV) to Healthcare Professionals and Healthcare Organizations. The Code requires that Amgen publicly disclose information regarding TOVs resulting from Amgen’s interactions with Healthcare Professionals.

  If you are engaged in activities with Amgen that result in a transfer of value to you, Amgen will collect and process personal information about you in order to comply with the Code reporting obligations. Such information will include your name and profession, your business/practice address, a description of the event and service you provided to Amgen (if relevant); and the amount of TOVs you received from Amgen. The information will be publicly available for a period of 3 years after the original date of public disclosure, unless a different period is legally required.

  E. Information About Users of Our Website

  All users of our website

  We retain a record of the IP address of your computer. We will only be able to link a particular IP address to you personally if you have provided us personally identifying information whilst using our website. We may use the IP address of your computer to maintain communications with you as you move about our website and personalise website content.

  We collect information about your use of our website through cookies. We will only be able to link this information to you personally if you have provided us personally identifying information whilst using our website. We may use the data we obtain through the use of cookies:

  • to customise your website experience by anticipating the information and services that may be of interest to you;
  • to improve the functioning of our website by monitoring traffic in popular areas and to modify the services and information we provide to meet customer demand; and
  • for our business purposes, including operation of our website, as well as research and product analyses to help us better market our products.

  Individuals that register to use our online information and services

  If you choose to register to use our online information and services, we may also collect and use the personal information you give us (such as your name and contact details) to send you an e-mail confirming your registration and to respond to your questions. Upon your request, we may also send you e-mails with information that we think may be of interest to you, including information about our product and services.

  Individuals that participate in our online interactive services

  If you choose to participate in our online interactive services (including health questionnaires and care management tools), we will collect the personal information you choose to disclose (which may include health information) and analyse it to discover new facts that could help us better understand how our products are used in coping with the diseases for which they are marketed. Although the information you provide through these interactive services may not identify you, we may link it with other information you provide us elsewhere on our website which does identify you. We may combine this information with that from other website users to create summary data that we will use for our business purposes, including research and analysis to improve our products and help us better market our products.

  F. Information About Job Applicants

  You may browse jobs on our website and choose to apply for vacant positions. For further information with respect to personal information that may be collected as part of a job application, please visit the Amgen Careers Online Privacy Statement at:
  http://careers.amgen.com/en/privacy-policy

  G. Information About Other Individuals

  If you communicate with or request information from Amgen personnel, they will have your e-mail address as well as any personal facts you choose to include in your communication.

  H. Disclosure to Vendors and Suppliers.

  We have relationships with different vendors and suppliers who help us design and maintain our computer systems and security, respond to e-mail and customer inquiries, analyse our data and create special promotions. We will not authorize our vendors and suppliers to use our customer information for any purposes unrelated to our contractual relationship with them.

  I. Transfers Overseas

  As previously stated, please note that any personal information that Amgen Australia may collect may be processed in Australia or in other countries—including the United States of America, Canada and countries in Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific —in which Amgen, or one of the third parties with whom Amgen has a relationship, is located. Some countries may have different data protection standards than the country in which you live. Amgen Australia remains accountable for all personal information it transfers overseas, and takes appropriate measures to ensure that the confidentiality of the personal information is safeguarded.

• II. Links to Other Websites

  Amgen Australia’s website features links to other websites that we believe you might find useful and informative. Please be aware, however, that we do not endorse or recommend these websites' content or services, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of these other websites. We encourage you to be aware of and read the privacy statement of each website you visit. Remember, the statements in this Privacy Statement apply solely to information collected by Amgen Australia and Amgen.

• III. Co-branded Websites

  We may partner with other companies to provide you with content or services on a joint or "co-branded" basis. At a co-branded website you will see both the Amgen logo and the logo of the co-branded partner displayed on your screen. To access the services available on a co-branded website you may have to complete a new on-line registration form, and this registration information may be shared with Amgen's co-branded partners. You should read the individual privacy policies of our co-branded partners, as these may differ in some respects from ours. Reading these policies will help you to make an informed decision about whether to provide your information to a given website. Remember, you may always opt-out of sharing your information with a partner website by choosing not to use the service or content provided by the co-branded website.

• IV. Our Children's Policy

  Amgen Australia's website content and services are intended for adult users over the age of 15. The website is not designed to attract child users. If we learn that an under-15 user has volunteered personal information (including health information) on our website, or that a provider has volunteered information about a patient who is identified as younger than 15, we will delete such information from our active databases in accordance with our deletion practices, which is described in the section titled, 'How We Hold and Protect Personal Information' except as required to fulfil our pharmacovigilance reporting obligations.

• V. Your Privacy Choices (Including Access and Correction of Personal Information and Privacy Complaints)

  • Online collection opt-in: When you access any interactive tool or service on our website, you will be asked to affirmatively choose ("opt-in") to provide the requested information. You may always choose not to provide the requested information.
  • Accept Cookies. Your browser software can be set to reject all cookies. However, if you reject our cookies, certain areas of our website’s functions may not work properly. To find out more about cookies, and how you can decline to accept them, please refer to your internet browser’s instructions or help option.
  • Access and Correct/Update Personal Information. You have a right to request to access or correct/update your personal information (including your health information). You may make such a request at any time, by contacting our Privacy Officer on the details set out at the end of this Privacy Statement. We will provide you with access to the information we hold about you, and/or correct/update that information, unless there is an exception that applies under the Australian Privacy Principles. In particular, we may not be able to amend your personal information if it was provided to us by a health care professional or a consumer regarding an adverse drug event.
  • Remove Personal Information. You may request that Amgen delete/erase previously provided personal information (including health information) by contacting our Privacy Officer on the details set out at the end of this Privacy Statement. Legal requirements in some countries may prevent us from deleting certain personal information. In particular, we may not comply with a consumer's request to delete information that was provided to us by a health care professional or a consumer regarding an adverse drug event.

  It is not technologically possible to remove from our servers each and every record of your information. The need to back-up our systems to protect information from inadvertent loss means that a copy of information about you (including your health-related interests) may exist in a non-erasable form that will be difficult or impossible for us to locate.

  Nevertheless, when permitted by law, Amgen will delete your personal information (including health information) stored in the databases Amgen actively uses for research and daily business activities, or stored in other readily searchable media. In addition, we will use reasonable efforts not to disclose any personal information stored in a non-erasable format after receiving your request for removal, except as required by law.

  • Make a Privacy Complaint. If you wish to make a complaint about our handling of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer on the details set out at the end of this Privacy Statement. You will be asked to submit your complaint in writing. We will respond to your complaint as soon as practicable. If you are a participant in a clinical trial, your complaint may be referred to the principal investigator for the clinical trial.

  If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as follows:

  Online: www.oaic.gov.au/privacy
  Phone: 1 300 363 992
  Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
  Fax: +61 2 9284 9666
  Mail: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 or GPO Box 2999 Canberra ACT 2601

• VI. How We Hold and Protect Personal Information

  We hold your personal information in a combination of hard copy and electronic files. Electronic files are stored in servers that are operated and maintained by Amgen and third parties under contract with Amgen.

  We want your personal information to remain as secure as reasonably possible. To help ensure the integrity and confidentiality of the personal information (including health information) you provide to us, we may use encryption practices. As an added security precaution, all personal information (including health information) is kept physically behind firewalls and other network security devices to prevent intruders from gaining access.

• VII. Contact Us

  If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Statement, or wish to access or correct your personal information or make a privacy complaint, please contact our Privacy Officer at:

  Attn: Privacy Officer
  Amgen Australia Pty Ltd
  Level 7, 123 Epping Road,
  North Ryde NSW 2113
  
  Tel: +61 2 9870 1333
  Email: privacyoffice@amgen.com

This Privacy Statement is effective as of August 2015.