Privacy Policy

AbbVie Care Privacy Policy

The AbbVie Care program (the “Program”) offers a range of health, wellness and logistics services for patients prescribed HUMIRA (adalimumab). The Program is administered by AbbVie Pty Ltd’s authorised nominated third party provider (“Nominated Third Party”) and sponsored by AbbVie Pty Ltd (“AbbVie”). This Privacy Policy explains how Nominated Third party handles the personal information that it obtains in connection with your enrolment and participation in the Program.

The Australian Privacy Principles

The Privacy Act outlines the Australian Privacy Principles, which set the minimum standards for how private sector organisations should handle your personal information. We are committed to complying with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Your personal information

“Personal information” includes information about you that identifies you or could reasonably be used to identify you.

The personal information collected and stored by the Nominated Third Party may include your name, date of birth, current and previous addresses, telephone or mobile phone number and email address, occupation, sensitive information (see below) and any other personal information which you or others submit to the Nominated Third Party about you for the purposes of administering and managing the Program, or to assess your interest in participating in market research or AbbVie research projects related to the Program.

The Nominated Third Party will also hold details of the Program services that you take up or agree to participate in (including their status). If you request a specific service in relation to the Program, the Nominated Third Party may also collect information from you related to that service, including sensitive information.

Sensitive Information

If you are a patient, the Nominated Third Party may collect information about your health status, medical history, related medical conditions and treatment, including your prescription collection status and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (“PBS”) treatment eligibility assessment criteria.

When the Nominated Third Party collects sensitive information about you, they do so in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. The Nominated Third Party will only collect sensitive information when they have obtained your consent to do so or where the person providing the sensitive information to them has confirmed that he or she has obtained your consent. In providing your consent, you consent to them collecting, transferring, disclosing, storing, and processing the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the terms of any consent you provide.

How the Nominated Third Party collects personal information

In the administration and management of the Program, they will collect personal information including that of patients and healthcare professionals, in accordance with the Program Terms and Conditions available from your AbbVie Care Coordinator by calling 1800 486 472.

The Nominated Third Party collects personal information in a number of ways, including:

directly from you, for example, when you provide information in person, by phone, on the website enrolment form or otherwise online, and
from third parties involved in the delivery of the Program – e.g. nurses.

If you are a participant in the Program, they may collect your personal information from your prescribing specialist, their nominated clinic staff or your pharmacist.

Irrespective of the source of the information, the Nominated Third Party respects and protects the privacy of your personal information.

How Nominated Third Party uses your personal information

Nominated Third party uses your personal information primarily to manage your participation in the Program and for other purposes as notified to you. For example, in connection with the Program, your personal information may be used to:

enrol or register you in the Program (including, if you are a patient, to contact you via telephone, email or SMS to confirm that you consent to participate in the Program);
provide you with services in connection with the Program, administer and manage the Program in accordance with the Program Terms and Conditions which are available from your AbbVie Care Coordinator by calling 1800 486 472;
contact you as necessary regarding matters relating to the Program;
allow Nominated Third Party or other parties involved with the Program to gain an understanding of your relevant health information, including medical history, medical conditions and requirements;
communicate with third parties involved in the Program, such as your prescribing specialist, their nominated staff or your pharmacist;
to communicate with you to assess your interest in participating in market research or AbbVie sponsored research projects related to the Program;
report back your de-identified information as aggregated data to AbbVie for internal purposes, reporting, publication, presentation, research or market research purposes; and
comply with laws on the reporting of adverse events.

Nominated Third party will not use your personal information for any other purposes unless Nominated Third Party has your consent to do so or is required to do so by law. If you do not provide personal information when requested, Nominated Third Party will not be able to manage your participation in the Program and, as a result, you may not be able to participate.

When Nominated Third Party discloses your personal information

Nominated Third Party may disclose your personal information to selected third party service providers (who may be located outside of Australia), in connection with the provision and administration of the

Program, including to allow those organisations to provide or assist with:

patient enquiries;
mailing operations;
healthcare services (e.g. nurses, health coaches etc.); and
information technology services; and
market research.

Your personal information is disclosed to these organisations only in accordance with this Privacy Policy and any consent which you provide to Nominated Third Party. Any disclosure to such parties will only be to the extent necessary to fulfil a business purpose.

Your personal information that has been collected for use in the Program will be stored in a database accessible by prescribing specialist, the prescribing specialist’s additional users nominated by your prescribing specialist (e.g. clinic nurses, clinic administrators or other authorised personnel) (“Nominated Users”), Nominated Third Party or selected third party service providers providing information technology services via a secure online portal. If you are a patient participant in the Program, Nominated Third Party may also disclose your personal information to your prescribing specialist or their nominated users or your pharmacist (if applicable) in accordance with the Program Terms and Conditions available from your AbbVie Care Coordinator by calling 1800 486 472.

Data Sharing with AbbVie

Any self-reported safety events (including Adverse Events, Special Situations and Product Complaints) that arise from using HUMIRA will be reported to AbbVie for the purpose of reporting this information to the appropriate regulatory notification body and/or in accordance with AbbVie’s safety information reporting processes. AbbVie may also use the personal information to contact you to obtain additional information relating to your safety event (including adverse events, special situations and product complaints). AbbVie may also have access for information technology services purposes for system administration only. Otherwise, de-identified information relating to your participation in the Program, such as information about your prescription collection status, and PBS treatment eligibility assessment criteria will be collated into a report for AbbVie. AbbVie may use this information for internal purposes, including planning and managing resources for the Program, and analysis and research purposes (e.g. to calculate patient adherence rates). AbbVie may disclose the information to third parties in order to promote awareness of the Program and to publish the information in reports or medical publications. You will not be able to be identified in any form of report or publication. Any personal information collected by AbbVie will be handled in accordance with AbbVie’s privacy policy available at www. abbvie.com.au/privacy/home.html.

Help us to ensure we hold accurate information

Nominated Third Party take all reasonable precautions to ensure that the personal information collected, used and disclosed is accurate, complete and up- to-date. However, the accuracy of that information depends to a large extent on the information you and others provide to Nominated Third Party. That is why it is recommend that you:

let Nominated Third Party know if there are any errors in your personal information; and
keep Nominated Third Party up-to-date with changes to your personal information such as your email or phone contact details. If you are a subscriber to one of the online products or services, you may change these abovementioned details by using the relevant facility on the AbbVie Care website at abbviecare.com.au

Security and retention of your personal information

Nominated Third Party and selected third party service providers providing information technology services may hold your personal information in a number of ways, including electronically and in paper format.

Nominated Third party and selected third party service providers providing information technology services take reasonable steps to protect such personal information from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Personal information that is held on the systems is protected through the use of secure passwords and other security procedures. Access to personal information is limited to those who specifically need it to conduct their business responsibilities for the purposes of the Program.

As noted above, your personal information will be stored in a database accessible by registered users via the AbbVie Care Web Portal. Your prescribing specialists, their nominated clinic staff, selected third party service providers providing information technology services and Nominated Third Party are permitted access to this database. Prescribing specialists and their nominated clinic staff will not have access to any other prescribing specialist’s information or patient data.

Nominated Third Party and selected third party service providers providing information technology services also maintain physical security procedures to manage and protect the use and storage of paper records containing personal information.

Nominated Third Party requires personnel to handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act. Nominated Third Party personnel and selected third party service providers providing information technology services are educated and trained about the requirements of the Australian Privacy Principles and the Privacy Act.

Nominated Third Party will keep your information as required in connection with the administration and management of the Program. Nominated Third Party and selected third party service providers providing information technology services will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information when it is no longer needed.

You can access and correct your personal information

You have a right to access and ask Nominated Third Party to correct your personal information, subject to some exceptions, as prescribed by law. If you would like to do so, please let Nominated Third Party know. You may be required to put your request in writing for security reasons.

If you have a complaint

If you have any complaints about privacy practices or procedures, please contact Nominated Third Party in writing at the email address below. Nominated Third Party will promptly acknowledge and investigate complaints.

If you do not receive a response to your request in a timely manner or are otherwise unsatisfied with our handling of your request, you may lodge a complaint with The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Details of how to make a complaint are located at www.oaic.gov.au.

How to contact us

If you have any questions in relation to privacy, please contact us on 02 8373 7400, or by writing to the AbbVie Care team at support@abbviecare.com.au or AbbVie Care, Reply Paid 86675, PO Box 6042, North Sydney NSW 2059 (no stamp required) or fax to 1800 219 836.