PRIVACY NOTICE

This Privacy Notice describes how and for which purposes Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH (hereafter “Boehringer Ingelheim”, “we”, “our”, “us”) processes the personal data we collect about you through this website and social media. 

Content

1. PURPOSES OF DATA PROCESSING

1.1 Registration, communication (website and social media channels)

We process your data in order to provide you with the services on our websites, for example when you register, log in, participate in training courses and events or send us messages.

We also process your data when you participate in campaigns on our social media channels (Instagram, LinkedIn etc.) or send us inquiries or comments.

The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) b) GDPR

1.2 Use of cookies and related data processing (website optimisation, analysis, advertising)

We use cookies (small text files placed on your browser) and similar Technologies such as pixel tags (hereinafter referred to as “Cookies”).

1.2.1 Essential Cookies

Essential Cookies are necessary for the website to function properly by providing basic features such as page navigation, access to secure areas of the website or language settings. Legal basis is Art. 6 (1) b) GDPR We store these essential Cookies for up to 14 days. 

1.2.2 Website optimisation and analysis

Based on your consent, we set Cookies and analyse how you’re using our websites. This way, we collect information about how well certain services are received and we can adjust and improve them as well our websites.

You may withdraw your consent at any time here 

1.3 Pharmacovigilance

As a pharmaceutical company, Boehringer Ingelheim is required to carry out certain activities related to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other medicine-related problem, also known as pharmacovigilance obligations. The pharmacovigilance obligations require us to process certain information, which may allow us to directly or indirectly identify a person, i.e. the patient and/or the reporter of the adverse event (personal data).

We may need to process following personal data:

About the reporter:

• Full name, initials and contact details (which may include your address, email address and phone number), profession (e.g., physician, pharmacist).

About the patient (subject of the report):

• Initials (as provided) never the patient’s name; gender; age / date of birth / age group;
• Details related to the Boehringer Ingelheim product suspected to cause the reaction, such as administration information, batch number;
• Further details related to the adverse event: What did exactly happen?; course and outcome of the adverse event, start and end date, first-time user?, information on concomitant medications and/or diseases; seriousness of the event; view of patient and/or reporter on possible causal relationship between Boehringer Ingelheim product and adverse event;

The contact information is requested to enable us to follow-up with the reporter to gain high quality and complete information on adverse events. If the reporter does not wish to provide his contact details to Boehringer Ingelheim or authorities, the reporter can enter “Privacy” in reporter’s names field.

We may process your personal data to: (i) analyse the reported adverse event; (ii) contact the reporter for further information; (iii) collate and analyse the information about the adverse event with information about other adverse events received by Boehringer Ingelheim worldwide through our global pharmacovigilance database which is operated by Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH; and (iv) report pharmacovigilance relevant information to health authorities worldwide.

Reported personal data will be used solely for these purposes. Legal basis for processing pharmacovigilance relevant personal data, including special categories of personal data, is Art. 9 (2)(i) GDPR in connection with Section 22 (1)(c) German Federal Data Protection Act, and furthermore in connection with Art. 49 (1) e) GDPR for transfers outside the EU.

We are legally obliged to archive pharmacovigilance related information—which may include your personal data—for the time period of the market authorisation plus at least a further ten (10) years after the marketing authorisation has expired in any country where the relevant Boehringer Ingelheim product was placed on the market.

1.4 Further purposes

If necessary, we process your personal data for additional purposes:

• satisfying our legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) f) GDPR), including the following:
  
  (i) to complete a corporate transaction (e.g., corporate restructuring, sale or assignment of assets, merger);
  (ii) to protect, enforce and defend our rights, property and interests;

• ensuring compliance with legal obligations, court orders or other binding decisions of public authorities (Art. 6 (1) c) GDPR).
• as a contractual/statutory requirement according to Art. 13(2)(e) GDPR.

2. TRANSFER OF PERSONAL DATA

We may share and/or disclose personal data with third parties:

2.1 Reporting obligations to regulatory authorities and enforcement of rights

In order to comply with legal reporting obligations, to protect our rights and/or the rights of third-parties, we may share and disclose personal data to rights holders, consultants, courts and competent authorities in accordance with legal provisions (e.g., mandatory reports in respect of a suspected adverse event).

2.2 Service provider (Processor)

We engage service providers to process your personal data for the purposes described in this privacy policy. These service providers process the data only on our behalf, according to our instructions, under our control and in accordance with this privacy policy.

2.3 Boehringer Ingelheim companies

As part of a global group of companies, we involve other Boehringer Ingelheim companies that support us with data processing (e.g., as part of our pharmacovigilance obligations to analyse and process a reported adverse event). These group companies process the data exclusively for the purposes stated in this privacy policy as Joint Controller according to Art. 26 GDPR.

2.4 Transfer to third parties

We transfer data to contractual partners who process data under their own responsibility and for their own purposes (e.g., LinkedIn or Twitter, if you have given your consent). The data is transferred solely for the purposes described in this Privacy policy.

2.5 Other Pharmaceutical Companies

We may share pharmacovigilance related information—which may include personal data—with other pharmaceutical companies who are involved in co-marketing or co-distribution, or with other licence partners of a Boehringer Ingelheim group of companies, where pharmacovigilance obligations for a Boehringer Ingelheim product require such exchange of safety information; these companies process the data only on our behalf, according to our instructions, under our control and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

2.6 Social plugins and third-party content

We have not implemented any tools, by which information is automatically transferred to the provider of social media services when you visit our website (Social Plugins).

Any forwarding to social media providers such as YouTube, Meta etc. takes place exclusively via link, so that data about your visit to our services (e.g., IP address, time, URL) or data available on your end device (e.g., Cookie information) is only transmitted to the respective providers when the link is consciously used.

2.7 Data transfer to recipients outside the EU

Authorities, service providers, business partners and Boehringer Ingelheim companies may process personal data outside the EU. In these cases, we ensure an adequate level of data protection to comply with European law (usually through EU standard contractual clauses published by the European Commission or, if necessary, other appropriate safeguards). You can request a copy of the contract that implements the appropriate protection of personal data by contacting our Data Privacy Officer using the contact details set out below.

3. RETENTION PERIODS

Boehringer Ingelheim will store your personal data as long as it is necessary for the respective purposes, which is usually to provide the services you have requested. This means, for example, that we store your user account data (login, profession, name etc.) until you delete it. In some cases, we are obliged to store your data for longer in order to comply with statutory retention periods. 

We have specified retention periods for certain processing purposes.

4. YOUR RIGHTS

You have the right to:

• request information about your personal data processed by Boehringer Ingelheim;
• in justified cases, request deletion, rectification or restriction of the processing of your personal data;
• in certain circumstances, request transfer of your Personal Data to you or another person in a commonly used format;
• file a complaint with a data protection authority;
• request the deletion of your Personal Data if they are no longer necessary for the purposes of processing or there is no legal ground for their further processing.
• object to processing of your Personal Data at any time as far as such processing is only based on Boehringer Ingelheim’s legitimate interest (Art. 6 (1) f) GDPR). In this case, we will not process such personal data any longer, unless the interests of Boehringer Ingelheim prevail. You can object to the use of data for direct marketing purposes at any time without a weighing of interests.

Should you have given your consent to the processing of your personal data, you can withdraw it at any time with effect for the future; such withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of the processing until such withdrawal.

5. CONTACT AND QUESTIONS

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or about how we use your personal data, please contact us at the following address:

Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH
– Data Protection Officer –
Binger Strasse 173, D-55216 Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany
E-Mail: datenschutz@boehringer-ingelheim.com

If you still have questions or concerns regarding data processing, you can also contact any supervisory authority. The authority responsible for Boehringer Ingelheim is:

Der Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit Rheinland-Pfalz
Hintere Bleiche 34, 55116 Mainz, Germany
E-mail: poststelle@datenschutz.rlp.de

6. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. Updates of our Privacy Statement will be published on this website. Any amendments become effective upon publication on our Website.

Last updated: April 2022