Privacy Policy

AbbVie Inc.

Privacy Policy 

Effective January 01, 2021 

This Privacy Notice explains how AbbVie Inc., 1 North Waukegan Rd., North Chicago, IL 60064 (“AbbVie”) may process Personal Data about you through your online and off-line interactions with us through AbbVie services, products, communications, and digital properties (including websites and mobile applications) that refer to this Privacy Notice and where AbbVie may obtain and control your Personal Data from a third party (collectively, “AbbVie Relationships”).

Your Personal Data we may collect

This section describes the general categories of Personal Data that we may collect for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice. You can find additional information on the types of Personal Data we collect for online interactionsjob applicantshealth care professionals, and patient and customer programs by clicking on the relevant links.

 

Personal Data we collect from you or from other sources

AbbVie may collect Personal Data from you directly, for example as part of a registration or in response to a questionnaire. AbbVie may also obtain Personal Data indirectly, such as from publicly available sources (e.g., websites or publicly accessible databases), third-party data vendors, health care providers and health insurance companies, and third-party partners and collaborators. We may combine Personal Data from multiple online and off-line sources. The categories of Personal Data that AbbVie may collect about you include:

  • Direct identifiers and contact information, including your name, address, phone number, or email address
  • Registration information, such as your username and password
  • Relationship data, including information about products, treatments and health conditions that are of interest to you
  • Transaction data, including purchases and inquiries
  • Financial account data, such as your credit card number
  • Income and demographic information, such as when you request financial assistance for one of our products
  • Health-related information, such as information about a health condition, safety and health information in relation to any of our products, or insurance and demographic information
  • Payment-related information if you provide a service to AbbVie

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How we may use Personal Data

We may use your Personal Data for the business and commercial purposes relating to your AbbVie Relationships, communicating with you, improving AbbVie Relationships and our products and services, and for other internal business purposes. You can find additional information on how we use Personal Data for online interactionsjob applicantshealth care professionals, and patient and customer programs by clicking on the relevant links.

Administering programs, services, and other interactions with you

We may use your Personal Data for everyday business purposes, such as payment processing and financial account management, contract management, website administration, fulfilment, corporate governance, and reporting obligations. We may also use your Personal Data to provide you with the programs or services that you requested, or to administer AbbVie services, such as direct purchasing, participating in a savings program or signing up to receive a rebate. This means that we may use your Personal Data to respond to your questions, provide you with your requested services, offer you an optimal customer experience, perform our contractual obligations to you, or perform actions based on your consent.

Marketing communications and disease awareness

We provide marketing communications that promote the use of or offer participation in AbbVie products, services, programs, research events or provide other information that may be of interest to you, such as information on certain health conditions. We will use your Personal Data to send you marketing communications and to determine the types of marketing communications to send.

You can opt-out of marketing communications at any time. Marketing communication opt-out instructions are included in each marketing communication you receive, or you can email us at privacyoffice@abbvie.com.

Customized experiences and improving relationships

Personal Data may be used to create customized offers, information, or services tailored to your interests and preferences. It may also be used to develop and improve your AbbVie Relationships. In some cases, we collect your Personal Data with your consent. In other cases, we collect this information for our legitimate business interest to optimize and customize AbbVie Relationships.

Business and product administration and improvement

In order to discover new facts that could help AbbVie better understand customer needs and help improve, develop, and evaluate product services, materials, programs, and treatments, AbbVie analyzes Personal Data for its legitimate interests in business and product improvement.

Compliance with laws and regulations

We may process your Personal Data to comply with laws and regulations, including those related to pharmacovigilance. We may also use Personal Data to monitor compliance with our policies and procedures, for fraud prevention, and to investigate and prosecute users who violate our rules or who engage in behavior that is illegal or harmful to others or to others’ property.

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How we may disclose Personal Data

We generally share Personal Data with third parties for the business and commercial purposes described below. We do not sell Personal Data to third parties. You can find additional information on how we share Personal Data for online interactionsjob applicantshealth care professionals, and patient and customer programs by clicking on the relevant links.

Affiliates and vendors

We have relationships with various vendors, including our affiliated companies, that help us operate our business and for whom it may be required to have access to your Personal Data in the course of providing services to AbbVie. We require them to handle your Personal Data collected through the AbbVie Relationships in accordance with appropriate contractual privacy and security provisions.

Business and research partners

We may partner with other companies and public and private organizations to provide you with products, content, or services on a joint or “co-branded” basis. You should be aware that, in such cases, in addition to this Privacy Notice, the relevant partner’s privacy notice may also apply, and, in limited cases, there may be a shared privacy notice.

For co-branded forms and sites, you will see displayed both the AbbVie logo and the logo of the co-branding partner. To access co-branded services, you may have to complete a registration form, and this registration information may be shared with AbbVie’s co-branding partners, and you should read the individual privacy policies of our co-branding partners, as they may differ in some respects from ours.

In addition, we may disclose Personal Data to our external auditors, attorneys, accountants, and similar professionals based on our legitimate interest in the operation of our business and our obligations to comply with applicable laws and regulations.

Disclosures for legal obligations, to authorities and for product safety

If you contact AbbVie regarding your experience using our products, we may use the information you provide to us to submit our reports to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, other similar health and medicine government agencies across the world, and as otherwise required of us by law. We also may use the information to contact your prescribing physician to follow up regarding an unexpected event involving the use of our product.

In certain limited circumstances, we may need to disclose your Personal Data to comply with a legal obligation, process, or demand and for reasons of public interest, such as to comply with reporting obligations to our governing regulatory authorities regarding the safety of our products, in response to a subpoena, or to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.

Disclosure to subsequent owner or operator

We may transfer your Personal Data to a successor entity upon a merger, consolidation or other corporate reorganization, to a purchaser of all or a portion of our assets, or pursuant to a financing arrangement or co-promotional agreement. The Personal Data we have about you may be transferred to parties to the transaction based on our legitimate interest in preparing for and completing the transaction. Any successor entity shall be bound by terms and conditions reasonably similar to this Privacy Notice.

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Additional information for California residents

If you are a California resident, you have certain rights with respect to AbbVie’s use and disclosure of your Personal Data. Those California-specific privacy requirements not addressed in other Privacy Notice sections are described here.

Consistent with the collection practices described in this Privacy Notice, we may collect certain categories and specific pieces of Personal Data either from your or from other third parties. We collect, use, and disclose Personal Data for our business and commercial purposes described in this Privacy Notice. AbbVie does not sell Personal Data. Furthermore, AbbVie receives, and may further share with its collaborators and partners, deidentified health data from health care providers and health plans, subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). The health data received by AbbVie was deidentified based on either HIPAA’s “safe harbor” method, which means that certain direct identifiers were removed from the health data, or HIPAA’s expert determination method, which means that a qualified statistician reviewed the health data shared with AbbVie and confirmed that there is a very small risk that an individual could be identified from the remaining health data.

As a California resident, you have the right to request:

  • Information about the Personal Data that AbbVie has collected, used, and disclosed about you over the previous 12 months. This includes:
    • the categories of Personal Data collected
    • the categories of sources from which your Personal Data was collected
    • the business or commercial purposes for which AbbVie collected your Personal Data
    • the categories of your Personal Data that was disclosed for a business or commercial purpose
    • the categories of third parties with whom AbbVie shared your Personal Data
  • The specific Personal Data that AbbVie has collected about you over the previous 12 month.
  • To have your Personal Data deleted.

Should you exercise any of your privacy rights as a California resident, AbbVie will not discriminate against you by offering you different pricing or products, or by providing you with a different level or quality of products, based solely upon this request. However, certain AbbVie Relationships may require your consent to have your Personal Data shared with AbbVie to provide the service or to allow us to use and disclose your Personal Data to provide the AbbVie Relationships. When you exercise your deletion right, you may lose access to certain aspects of AbbVie Relationships that require your Personal Data to perform the service.

Please see the Your privacy rights and choices section if you or your authorized representative have questions or would like to make a request to exercise any of your rights described in this section. After you make your request, we will use the information we have to verify your identity (and if applicable, your authorized agent’s identity), and to match the Personal Data we have collected about you, if any, to your verified identity. Our verification process may include a request for additional information to confirm your identity or your authorized agent’s identity, or to obtain proof that you have given your authorized agent permission to act on your behalf. If our verification process is successful, we will respond to your request within the time and in the manner required by applicable law. If we cannot validate the identity of you and/or your authorized agent or obtain proof that you have given your authorized agent permission to act on your behalf, we will attempt to contact you to inform you.

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Additional information for job applicants

If you have applied for employment with AbbVie, the Personal Data submitted with your job application may include your resume; previous professional, education and other background information; driver’s license information; social security number or equivalent national identification (as required or permitted by local law); cover letter; licenses; permits and certifications held; reference information; and any other information that you choose to provide (e.g., employment preferences, willingness to relocate, awards or professional memberships). This information may come from you, a recruiter, your references, prior employers, or your educational institutions.

Consistent with applicable law, we may ask questions about race/ethnic origin, gender, veteran status, and disability status of our applicants, for the monitoring of equal employment opportunity compliance. Except as specifically requested or legally required, we ask that you avoid submitting information in your application that may qualify as sensitive information under applicable law. Sensitive information includes data about race, color, religion, ethnicity, nationality or national origin, age, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical or health information (including physical or mental disabilities or pregnancy status), genetic or biometric information, political or philosophical beliefs, political party or trade union membership, veteran status, photographs, background check information, judicial data such as criminal records or information on other judicial or administrative proceedings, or any other legally protected status.

Personal Data will be processed based on our legitimate interest in processing your job application and evaluating your candidacy and qualifications and to conduct reference checks. We may also inquire about criminal records and perform a background check following a conditional offer of employment, where permitted by applicable law. We may also process Personal Data from your job application for regulatory, compliance and legal purposes, consistent with this Privacy Notice. Personal Data may be also be used for additional administrative purposes, including aggregate management reporting, internal training, and as generally required to operate our business.

We may share the data on your applications with recruiters, consultants, attorneys, preemployment background check services, and our affiliates.

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Additional information for health care professionals

We may collect additional categories of Personal Data if you are a health care professional, as described in this section. We also use and disclose Personal Data about health care professionals for the additional purposes described in this section. The categories of Personal Data collected and the purposes of use and disclosure described in this section are in addition any other collection, use and disclosure of Personal Data practices described separately in this Privacy Notice.

Additional Personal Data that AbbVie may collect about health care professionals

If you are health care professional, we may collect Personal Data about you directly from you, or from third-party sources such as the organization where you work, publicly available sources, interactions with AbbVie (including online available sources), and participation in AbbVie-sponsored or -supported initiatives such as AbbVie-sponsored clinical research and development activities, third-party databases, and reporters of pharmacovigilance events.

We may collect the following additional categories of Personal Data about health care professionals:

  • Professional details, such as resumes or other documents or forms provided directly to us, place of practice, job title, professional contact details, medical specialty, professional license number, professional qualifications and scientific activities (such as previous clinical trial experience, activity on social media platforms or other websites, and participation in past or pending research studies with us and other companies), organizational or institutional affiliations, publication of academic or scientific research and articles, and membership in associations and boards
  • Personal Data provided to participate in our sponsored or -supported initiatives, such as our sponsored clinical research and development activities, online or in-person seminars regarding product information, educational events, and clinical information updates
  • Details of interactions with us, such as what kind of meetings we have held, topics discussed, your knowledge of and questions you have had about our business and products, what kind of material we have displayed to you, and any feedback that you have provided, as well as your opinions of and routines for prescribing, routines regarding your patients, diagnoses, and automatic tracking information in online interactions with us
  • Payment and other transfers of value details received from your interactions with AbbVie, which may include your tax identification number or national identification number (where required or permitted by law), contributions to costs of educational events (such as registrations fees, travel and accommodation expenses) and fees for services, including consultancy services

Additional uses and disclosures of health care professional Personal Data

We use and disclose Personal Data of health care professionals for the following additional purposes.

  • For the performance of our contract with you if you or your institution entered into a consulting, professional services, or other type of agreement with us.
  • Based on our legitimate interests in developing and improving our services, we will use and disclose Personal Data about health care professionals for:
    • managing and improving our relationship with you, including planning, organizing and reviewing any collaboration with you, and for contacting you
    • helping ensure that we provide you with information that is relevant based on your expertise, interests and preferences
    • recruitment and evaluation of the suitability of health professionals for their participation in clinical trials and market research and other research studies
    • conducting market and research studies in the public and private sectors
    • communicating with you about our products and programs (subject to any additional marketing consent requirements), engage with you about scientific or educational programs, administer our patient-support programs and provide access to you where applicable, respond to product orders, and provide product samples
    • research and analytics purposes to develop and evaluate our products, services, materials and treatment
    • internal accounting and analysis in connection with our internal policies and rules, such as our AbbVie Code of Business Conduct
  • Based on our legal obligations and for reasons of public interest, we will use and disclose Personal Data about health care professionals for:
    • safety monitoring, reporting and auditing and responding to inquiries or issues in relation to our products
    • complying with applicable laws and regulations, including requirements imposed by industry codes of conduct to collect payment and other transfer of value data of health care professionals and the public disclosure of such data, subject to applicable local consent requirements to publish such data in a manner that identifies the health care professional individually

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Additional information for participants in patient and customer programs

We may collect additional categories of Personal Data about participants in AbbVie’s patient and customer programs, as described in this section, including patient support programs and loyalty programs. We may also use and disclose Personal Data about participants in patient and customer programs for the additional purposes described in this section. The categories of Personal Data collected and the purposes of use and disclosure described in this section are in addition any other collection, use and disclosure of Personal Data practices described separately in this Privacy Notice.

Additional Personal Data that AbbVie collects for Patient and Customer Programs

If you are a participant in a patient or customer program, we may process the following additional categories of Personal Data about you, which we received from you directly, or from your health care professionals, health care insurers, and related third parties:

  • contact data such as address, phone number and other contact details
  • personal details such as name, date of birth and gender
  • data collected or created regarding your use of our programs and services
  • financial information related to qualification in certain income-based and financial support programs, including your social security number or national identification number (where permitted or required by law)
  • sensitive data such as health data relating to your disease or condition, medical history, treatment, reason for discontinuation, data on active management of the disease and insurance coverage and benefits related to your use of our products

Additional uses of data in the context of patient and customer programs

With your consent, we use and disclose your Personal Data as part of your program participation to administer and manage the program, including customization of the program to you, delivery of products and services, administering loyalty programs, reminding you to take your product as prescribed or to obtain a refill of your product, and to provide you with program support, communications, and materials relating to your treatment and the program. We may also contact your health care professional for drug safety information and to provide health care professional with information about your medicine and your participation in a program.

Based on our legal obligations and for reasons of public interest, we may use and disclose your Personal Data in our programs for safety monitoring, reporting and auditing, and responding to inquiries or issues in relation to our products, as well as to comply with applicable laws and regulations.

We will also use Personal Data that does not directly identify you for the compatible purposes of analytics, research and related publications, including to evaluate, develop and improve AbbVie’s programs and related services, products and medicines.

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Privacy of children

AbbVie does not knowingly collect any Personal Data directly from anyone under the age of 13. All AbbVie Relationships that support children are directed to and are communicated with parents and guardians only. If you are a parent or guardian and become aware that your child has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us using one of the methods in the Your privacy rights and choices section, and we will work with you to address this issue.

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Our contact information

You may contact us or our Global Privacy Office, including our Data Protection Officer, at any time, using the contact information below if you have questions about this Privacy Notice or have any other privacy request or inquiry. You can also opt-out or unsubscribe from any of our programs or services.

Please submit your privacy requests or inquiries here. You can also contact us by clicking on this “Contact” link, by using the contact information feature on our mobile application, by emailing us at privacydsr@abbvie.com, or by calling us toll-free at 1-800-255-5162. Alternatively, you may send a letter to the following address:

AbbVie Customer Service
Attn: Privacy
Department 36M
1 N. Waukegan Road
North Chicago, IL 60064-6163

In all communications to us, please include the email address used for registration (if applicable), the website address, mobile application, or the specific program to which you provided Personal Data (e.g., AbbVie.com), and a detailed explanation of your request. If you would like to delete, amend, or correct your Personal Data and are contacting us by email, please put “Deletion Request” or “Amendment/Correction Request” in the subject line of the email. We will respond to all reasonable requests in a timely manner, and we may need to further confirm your identity in order to process certain requests.

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Your privacy rights and choices

Under applicable data protection law, you may have the right to request access to and/or rectify, block, or delete Personal Data relating to you, transmit Personal Data to another controller, withdraw your consent at any time (this will not affect the lawfulness of previous data-processing activities), or object to any use of your Personal Data. If we are not able to provide the requested information or make the change you requested, you will be provided with the reasons for such decisions. Under local law, you may be entitled to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.

You may have the right to object to the processing activities described in this Privacy Notice that are based on our legitimate interests.

Please submit your privacy requests or inquiries here.

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Data security and retention

AbbVie maintains appropriate technical, administrative, and physical controls to reasonably safeguard any Personal Data collected through AbbVie Relationships. However, there is always some risk that an unauthorized third party could intercept an Internet transmission, or that someone will find a way to thwart our security systems. We urge you to exercise caution when transmitting Personal Data over the Internet, especially your health-related information. We cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will not gain access to Personal Data about you; therefore, when submitting Personal Data to us, you must weigh both the benefits and the risks.

We will only keep Personal Data as long as necessary for the fulfillment of the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice, except if otherwise required by applicable laws or legal orders. The criteria used to determine our retention periods include (i) the length of time we have an ongoing Abbvie Relationship with you; (ii) whether there is a legal or best practice retention obligation to which we are subject; and (iii) whether retention is needed in light of litigation or regulatory investigations. 

International Personal Data transfers

We may transfer Personal Data internationally as described in this section.

Intercompany transfers

Personal Data may be transferred and processed by and among AbbVie Inc. in the U.S., the parent company of AbbVie, and its affiliates in other countries. For a full list of AbbVie Inc.’s affiliates and their jurisdictions, please see our most recent SEC filing here. Our company maintains several inter-company data transfer agreements, which are based on EU model contracts and covers Personal Data transfers among AbbVie Inc. and its affiliates worldwide to ensure the adequate protection of Personal Data. Copies of these agreements can be obtained by sending an email to privacyoffice@abbvie.com.

Transfers to vendors, suppliers, and business partners

Personal Data may also be transferred and processed by our vendors, suppliers, and business partners in other countries. Any international transfer of Personal Data to third parties, including outside the EEA, will be conducted in compliance with the international data-transfer restrictions and requirements that apply under data-protection laws, including, where appropriate, using EU model contracts for Personal Data transfers to data processors or data controllers.

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Accessing our sites globally

This site is owned and operated by AbbVie in the United States. If you are visiting this site from a country other than the United States , your communication with us will result in the transfer of Personal Data across international borders. We will only process your Personal Data with your consent, to perform a contract between you and us, to comply with legal obligations, or where we have a legitimate interest. These legitimate interests include administrative activities and complying with your requests.

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Changes to our Privacy Notice

We will use Personal Data only in the manner described in the Privacy Notice in effect when the Personal Data was collected. However, and subject to any applicable consent requirements, we reserve the right to change the terms of this Privacy Notice at any time. Any changes to this Privacy Notice will be promptly posted to this page and accompanied by a new effective date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice regularly for any changes. Any Personal Data collected upon your continued use of AbbVie Relationships will be handled in accordance with the currently posted Privacy Notice.

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