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HomePrivacy PolicyPfizer Australia and New Zealand Privacy Policy

Effective 9 December 2024

Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd and Pfizer New Zealand Limited and its affiliates (separately and together, 'Pfizer') are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (‘Australian Act’) and the Privacy Act 2020 (‘New Zealand Act’) (together, ‘Acts’) and will only collect and use personal information in accordance with the Acts and this Policy.

Pfizer believes that choice is one of the most important privacy principles. You have the choice not to submit personal information (other than as may be required by law) to us although this may result in us being unable to provide products and services to you or reduce your ability to fully participate in all aspects of our websites and mobile apps (together, ‘Sites’). We will inform you if it is possible for an interaction to occur on an anonymous basis and, where it is, it will be optional for you to provide personal information.

By providing personal information and/or continuing to engage with Pfizer you consent to your personal information being collected, used and disclosed in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Data We Collect and Use

Pfizer may collect personal information about you through all of our interactions with you. Generally, Pfizer may keep a record of your name, contact details (i.e. address, telephone number, etc), and when collecting personal information for business purposes your professional details (e.g. qualifications, speciality, areas of interest), details on your practice/business (e.g. size, use of products, prescribing practices) and details of your dealings with us. Other information may be collected from other sources but those sources will provide details of what personal information is being collected and why.

When you post data or materials on public forum message boards, chat, profile pages, blogs and other services, you acknowledge that this information may be available to the general public.

By way of example, without limitation, Pfizer may collect information about:

  • Healthcare Professionals (e.g. doctor, nurse, pharmacist etc.) in the course of:
    • responding to product queries;
    • meetings with our sales representatives;
    • complying with our regulatory obligations (e.g. notification of important product safety information or recording reporter details for adverse event reporting); 
    • involvement in Patient Support Programs, Cost-Share Agreements, Compassionate Access Programs, Product Familiarisation Programs or other Medicines Access Programs; and
    • participation in Pfizer sponsored programs (e.g. clinical trials, expert panels, educational programs, research grants and disease management programs).​​​​
  • Members of the general public in the course of:
    • using our customer or product information services;
    • participation in non-prescription product promotional activities; and
    • participation in Pfizer sponsored programs (e.g. clinical trials, educational programs and disease management programs).
  • Service providers in the course of:
    • providing services to Pfizer; and
    • completing due diligence questionnaires.
  • Pharmacy customers in the course of:
    • Fulfilling orders through PfizerDirect.


The personal information collected may vary depending on your particular interaction with Pfizer but will be limited to that information necessary to record and manage our interaction with you or as permitted or required by law.

In addition, Pfizer may gather information about you automatically through your use of our Sites (e.g. your Internet Protocol ('IP') address and how you navigate our websites or device location). See also the section below on cookies and other tools. 

From time to time, Pfizer may collect or solicit personal information from a third party, from where you would reasonably expect or where you have previously consented to personal information being shared, for Pfizer's own internal use.

Medicines Access Programs and Patient Support Programs

If you are a participant in a Medicines Access Program (including but not limited to Cost-Share Agreements, Compassionate Access Programs or Product Familiarisation Programs) or Patient Support Program, Pfizer may collect additional sensitive data and health information which we may receive from you directly, from your health care professional or related third party, including nominated third party service providers engaged by Pfizer to deliver the Programs.

Pfizer and/or our service providers may use and disclose your personal information as part of your program participation to administer and manage the program. Pfizer and/or our service providers may also contact your health care professional to provide and receive information relevant to your participation in a program.

How We Use and Disclose Personal Data

Pfizer uses the personal information we collect for the primary purposes for which it is collected, other related purposes or as permitted or required by law including the following purposes:

  • maintaining a record of medical queries, complaints and adverse event or adverse reaction reports relating to our products and reporting these to the Government or relevant regulatory bodies, such as the Therapeutic Goods Administration or Medsafe, as may be required;

  • to enforce our terms and conditions;

  • to provide health products or services (including advice) that have been requested;

  • sending you material on our activities and products or developments in pharmaceutical treatments that Pfizer believes may be of interest to you and tailoring marketing services to suit your needs;

  • administering conferences, symposia, expert panels, seminars or other similar programs organised by us, which you agree to participate in or be involved with;

  • administering disease awareness/management programs or other similar programs organised by us, which you agree to participate in or be involved with;

  • to involve doctors/investigators (and people who assist them) in clinical trials;

  • to comply with legal obligations such as notifying you of matters that we may be required by law to notify you of (e.g. product recalls);

  • to conduct due diligence with respect to our service providers;

  • managing, planning and arranging meetings between healthcare practitioners and our sales representatives;

  • managing and administering our PfizerDirect service for pharmacies;

  • monitoring and reviewing our compliance with relevant regulations and codes of conduct in our dealings with you and monitoring the quality, safety and efficacy of our products;

  • to gain insights in to how Pfizer's products are prescribed and used in practice; and

  • generating customer lists for the purposes of market research.

    For any of the above purposes, Pfizer may disclose, store or process your personal information to or with:

  • its affiliates within or outside of Australia or New Zealand and the United States (a full list of Pfizer Global Affiliates and their locations is available here), in which case your personal information will be collected, used, disclosed, managed and stored in accordance with this policy;

  • third parties within or outside of Australia or New Zealand (Pfizer's service providers are mainly located in the United States, Europe, Singapore, China, India, Costa Rica and New Zealand). However from time to time we may need to engage a service provider in a country not identified. A list of all countries where we may send your information can be found here. You hereby authorise Pfizer to disclose your personal information to these overseas recipients; and

  • regulatory authorities, within or outside of Australia or New Zealand, and ethics committees as part of a clinical trial evaluation, monitoring or inspection process.

As Pfizer changes and grows Pfizer might buy or sell companies, subsidiaries or assets and generally, customer information is one of the transferred business assets, particularly if Pfizer or substantially all of its assets are acquired. We may disclose personal data to companies that were formerly wholly or partly included in the Pfizer family of companies to which we provide services during a transition period following separation.

Generally, we require that third parties who handle or obtain personal information as service providers to Pfizer acknowledge the confidentiality of this information, undertake to respect an individual’s right to privacy and comply with the Act and this Policy. However, you acknowledge that:

  • when sharing data in Australia, by agreeing to the disclosure of your personal information to these third parties operating outside of Australia, we will no longer be required to take reasonable steps to ensure the overseas third parties' compliance with the Australian Act (including the privacy principles) in relation to your personal information and we will not be liable to you for any breach of the Australian Act by these overseas third parties and on this basis you consent to such disclosure; and
  • when sharing data in New Zealand, by authorising the disclosure of your personal information to these third parties operating outside of New Zealand, the recipient parties may not be required to protect your personal information in a way that provides comparable safeguards to those in the New Zealand Act.


Security of personal information

Pfizer takes reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, alteration disclosure or interference and unauthorised access.

While we endeavour to keep information on Pfizer Sites, including the personal information provided by you or on your behalf, secure and confidential, we will not be responsible for any breach of security caused by third parties and do not represent that Pfizer Sites are completely secure.

Pfizer has directed its staff that personal information must be dealt with in accordance with this Policy and kept secure from unauthorised access or disclosure. Except for the disclosures listed above, we will limit access to personal information to Pfizer personnel on a need to know basis. We educate our staff about their duty to protect your privacy and provide training regarding privacy obligations.

In the aggregate/de-identified

Pfizer may also disclose aggregate or de-identified data that is not personally identifiable with third parties. Aggregate data is created by pooling information about individuals and describing the data in the aggregate (e.g. 20% of customers who clicked on the X promotion participated in the promotion).

Cookies and Other Tools

Pfizer and its business partners, in common with many website operators, may use standard technology called cookies on its websites. Cookies are small data files that are downloaded onto your computer when you visit a particular website. Cookies help provide additional functionality to the website or to help us analyse site usage more accurately. We use information collected from cookies to better understand, customise and improve user experience with our websites, services and offerings, as well as to manage our advertising. For instance, our server may set a cookie that keeps you from having to enter a password more than once during a visit to one of our Sites. Also, we may use web analytics services that leverage cookies to help us to understand how visitors engage with and navigate our site (e.g. how and when pages in a site are visited and by how many visitors).

We are also able to offer our visitors a more customised, relevant experience on our Sites using cookies by delivering content and functionality based on your preferences and interests. If you have provided us with personal information (e.g. through a registration or a request for certain materials), we may associate this personal information with information gathered through cookies. This allows us to offer increased personalisation and functionality.

In all cases in which cookies are used, the cookie will not collect personal information except with your explicit permission. Your web browser can be set to allow you to control whether you will accept cookies, reject cookies or to notify you each time a cookie is sent to your browser. If your browser is set to reject cookies, websites that are cookie-enabled will not recognise you when you return to the website, and some website functionality may be lost. 

In addition to Pfizer cookies, certain third parties may deliver cookies to your computer for a variety of reasons. For example, we sometimes use various web analytics tools that help us understand how visitors engage with our websites. Any third party links or advertising on our site may also use cookies; you may receive these cookies by clicking on the link to the third party site or advertising. We do not control the collection or use of information by these third parties, and these third party cookies are not subject to this Policy. You should contact these companies directly if you have any questions about their collection and/or use of information.

In addition, we may use other tracking systems like pixel-tags. Pixel tags, sometimes called web beacons, are similar in function to cookies but because of their insignificant size, they are not visible. However, they are used to pass certain information to our servers to personalize our websites and to track your usage across other Pfizer websites. In addition, we may also use pixel tags in our HTML based emails.
For more information about cookies, visit www.aboutcookies.org.

Data Analytics

– Mobile Apps

Pfizer’s mobile apps use data analytics to understand how the app is used, optimise user engagement with the app and customise and enhance user experience as well as ensuring the app functions properly.

This information may include:

  • Data about your device, such as screen resolution, device manufacturer and model, and language. We use this data to ensure the app functions properly.

  • Data about your use of the app, including content viewed, features used and dates and times of interactions. We use this data to understand how users engage with the app to customise and improve the app experience.

  • We may collect your IP address along with the time of the visit. We use this to calculate usage levels, diagnose server problems and administer the app. We may also derive your approximate location from your IP address.

  • We collect the physical location of your device to provide you with location-based services and content. You may be able to allow or deny such collection and/or use through your device settings.

You may stop all collection of data by the app by uninstalling the app.

Direct Marketing

With your consent, Pfizer may use your personal information to provide you with direct marketing communications about our products, services, promotions, and events that may be of interest to you. These communications may be sent via post, email, SMS, telephone, or other electronic means.

You have the right to opt-out of receiving direct marketing communications from us at any time. If you no longer wish to receive these communications, you can unsubscribe by following the instructions provided in the communication or by contacting Pfizer’s Privacy Officer in the details listed below.

We may also disclose your personal information to third party service providers who assist us in delivering our direct marketing communications. These service providers are contractually obligated to handle your personal information in accordance with applicable privacy laws and regulations.

AI and Automated Decision Making

Pfizer uses a number of programs and applications which utilise machine learning and other artificial intelligence (AI)-based processes.  AI tools are used by Pfizer for a variety of functions, including to assist with medical writing, analyse information from calls with healthcare professionals and to provide general assistance to Pfizer staff.

Whilst the AI tools used by Pfizer are not designed to process personal information, some personal information (such as names and email addresses) may be used in conjunction with AI tools to provide outputs for Pfizer staff.  

Pfizer does not generally use AI tools in order to make decisions which may affect your rights or interests, however if we become aware that AI tools are being used for this purpose we will provide you with further information where it is practicable to do so. 


Links

Pfizer websites may contain links to other websites that we think may be of interest to you. However, Pfizer is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites. When linking to the other site, you should always check that the website's privacy policy before providing any personal information.

Accessing and Updating Personal Information Pfizer Holds About You

Pfizer has appointed a Privacy Officer to oversee Pfizer’s management of personal information in accordance with this Policy and the Acts. The Privacy Officer’s contact details are set out below.

You can, in most cases, access the personal information Pfizer holds about you. If you wish to do so, please contact the Privacy Officer.

Pfizer endeavours to ensure that the personal information it holds is accurate, complete and up-to-date. Please contact the Privacy Officer if you believe that the information Pfizer holds about you requires changing or becomes out-of-date.

Personal Information of Minors

If you are providing us with Personal Data of individuals under the age of eighteen (18), you represent that you have the appropriate authority to do so and can demonstrate such authority to Pfizer upon request.

Australian Clopine® (clozapine) Monitoring System Patient Privacy Statement
Found here

Contact Us

If you have questions about Pfizer and privacy, wish to provide feedback about this policy, would like to update your personal details held by Pfizer, wish to access information held by Pfizer about you or wish to make a privacy related complaint please contact Pfizer's Privacy Officer for Australia and New Zealand at:

Email:                     [email protected]
Phone:                   +61 2 9850 3333
Postal address:    The Privacy Officer
                               Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd
                               or Pfizer New Zealand Limited
                               GPO Box 7015
                               Sydney NSW 2000

Updates to Our Privacy Policy

From time to time, we may update this Privacy Policy. Any changes will be effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy as per the date listed at the start of this policy. This Privacy Policy was last updated as of the effective date listed above. 

You should regularly review this Policy for any modifications or amendments, as your continued use of our Sites, products services or provision of further personal information to use after a modification or amendment of the revised Privacy Policy constitutes your deemed acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.

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