Further information is set out in the relevant Privacy Notice.
Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy addresses how argenx BV, a company having its registered office at Industriepark-Zwijnaarde 7, Belgium (as a controller) handles and protects “Personal Data” (i.e., any information that directly or indirectly identifies you) collected via the argenx website (www.argenx.uk) (the “Site”) and offline for sales and marketing purposes by argenx BV and its UK affiliate argenx UK LTD, Chalfont Park House, Chalfont Park Building 1, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, SL9 0BG (also as a controller for the processing of your personal data for direct marketing- related purposes) (together, “argenx”, “we”, “our”).
* “Affiliates” means any company controlled by, controlling or under common control of argenx SE, whereby control shall mean the ownership of at least 50% of the shares, holding the majority of voting rights at shareholder or board level or the ability to materially influence the policy of a company. Affiliates of argenx are argenx US Inc., argenx BV, and argenx Japan K.K.
** “Personal Data” means any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular person or household. This may include, but is not limited to your name, address, email address, phone number, identification number, CV, or health data provided by healthcare professionals or by you.
In certain cases, additional privacy notices and/or consent forms (“Privacy Notices”) will be provided to you, which will provide additional information as to the processing of your Personal Data. This includes (without limitation) the following cases:
- Employees and Job Applicants: If you are employed by, or are applying for employment with, argenx.
- Patients: If you are participating in a clinical trial sponsored by argenx and/or a patient access program administered by argenx;
- Healthcare Professionals: If you are referring a patient for purposes of a patient access program administered by argenx, engaged to assist with a clinical trial sponsored by argenx, otherwise engaged by argenx to provide services to us; or
Pharmacovigilance and Safety Data Reporting: If you report an adverse event in connection with a product for which argenx EU (argenx SE (in the Netherlands) and argenx BV (in Belgium)) or argenx Japan K.K. (in Japan) is the Marketing Authorisation Holder (MAH).
By accessing the Site, you agree to our collection and use of Personal Data as described in this Privacy Policy, our Cookie Policy and Disclaimer. However, this does not equate to consent for the processing of your Personal Data for purposes of European data protection laws.
Contents of this Privacy Policy
We strongly recommend that you read this Privacy Policy and, if you have any questions, contact our Global Privacy Office via email at privacy@argenx.com.
The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to help you understand:
- [Sources of Personal Data]: from where we collect your Personal Data
- [Types of Personal Data]: what Personal Data we collect and process about you
- [Use of Personal Data]: for what purposes and on what legal bases we process your Personal Data
- [Sharing of Personal Data]: who we share your Personal Data with
[Transfer of Personal Data to third countries]: where your Personal Data may be transferred
- [Protection of your Personal Data]: what we do to protect your Personal Data
- [How long we keep your Personal Data]: our approach to determining the retention periods for your Personal Data
- [Your data privacy rights]: what your rights are and how you can exercise them
- [Other useful information]: information around the collection of children’s information, linking to third-party websites, and changes to this Privacy Policy
- [Contact Details]: where and how you can contact us
Sources of Personal Data
Directly from you: We may collect and may have collected Personal Data from you when you, for example:
- visit and/or communicate with us through, the Site;
- partner with us in research and/or inquire about the same;
- request information about, and/or participate in, our clinical trials or patient access programs;
- register for an event sponsored or hosted by us;
- submit a job application to us; or
- otherwise voluntarily provide us with your Personal Data.
From third parties: We may collect and may have collected your Personal Data from third parties that determined you, or the entity you represent, might be interested in, for example, collaborating, partnering, or investing with us, or licensing or purchasing our products. These third parties may include, for example, healthcare professionals, healthcare organisations, clinical trial sites, public databases, and references and referral sources. Further information is set out in the relevant Privacy Notice.
Automatically: As is now common with most websites, our Site uses cookies and may use other online tracking tools (e.g., web beacons) to collect information about your IP address or your use of the Site. Cookies are small data files generated by a website and saved by your web browser. They are used to help users navigate websites efficiently as well as to provide information to the owner of the websites. To find out more about what cookies we use and how we use them, please see our Cookie Policy here.
Types of Personal Data
The Personal Data we may collect and may have collected varies depending on the purpose for which we are collecting your Personal Data and further information is available in the relevant Privacy Notice. This will include the following categories of Personal Data:
Personal identifiers and contact information, including your name, physical address, email address, phone numbers, and IP address or other unique identifier. If you are an employee of argenx we will also collect your social security number, and passport or visa information, and information about beneficiaries, dependents and emergency contacts. .
- Demographic information, such as age, date of birth, and gender.
- Health and medical information, such as medical history, symptoms, diagnoses, complications, treatments and medications, outcomes, genetic information, and health insurance information.
Internet or other electronic activity information, such as your device and browser type, your browsing and search history on our Site, and information regarding your interaction with our Site.
- Characteristics of protected classes (for employees and contractors), including age (over 40), sex/gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and/or related medical conditions); gender identity or gender expression; marital status; military or veteran status; disability information; and requests for leave from employment for family care, pregnancy, or serious health reasons.
Education, professional and performance information, including employer, job title, specialty, employment history, background check information, references, membership in professional organizations, speaking engagements, and affiliations with patient advocacy organizations.
- Audio and visual information, including video testimonials.
- Financial information, such as bank account information and amounts paid.
Use of Personal Data
We may have used, and may continue to use, your Personal Data for the purposes and in reliance on the legal bases set out below. Further information is set out in the relevant Privacy Notice.
As necessary for our legitimate interests to:
- Operate and manage our business: for example, providing our products and services, improving and developing new products and services, researching market trends, conducting audits and investigations, and otherwise administering our business.
- Communicate with you: for example, responding to your questions or requests for information or otherwise contacting you in connection with our business, providing you with information we think may interest you, to manage and maintain our relationships with you, for ongoing customer service and for maintaining records of our communications with you.
- Promote our business: for example, carrying out sales marketing and activities and sending you market research communications.
- Personalize our interactions with you, for example, to personalize your visit to the Site and to assist you while you use the Site, and to improve the Site by helping us understand who uses the Site.
- Collect information from or about you, for example, for purposes of a clinical trial or patient access program.
Identify potential candidates for employment, for example, reviewing publicly-available information to identify candidates.
- Administer the day-to-day management of our business, for example, to monitor, maintain and improve the processes, information and data, technology and communications solutions and services we use and offer, to perform general, financial and regulatory accounting and reporting, and to share Personal Data with third parties that acquire or are interested in acquiring all or part of our assets or shares or that succeeds us in carrying on our business.
Enforce or defend our rights and interests and those of third parties, ourselves or through third parties to whom we delegate such responsibilities.
Pursuant to a contract, to:
- Engage you to provide services to us, for example, engaging with services providers that provide market research services or working with research collaborators.
- Provide grants and sponsorships, for example, sponsoring and participating in research, events, and conferences.
Where we require your Personal Data to comply with our contractual obligations, failure to provide this Personal Data could make it impossible for us to engage with you.
With your consent (or the consent of your legal guardian), to:
- Send you promotional information about our products and services (where permitted by law). If you wish to stop receiving marketing communications from us you can unsubscribe via the link at the bottom of the relevant e-mail or contact us using the contact details below.
- Collect information from or about you, for example, when we are legally required to obtain your consent before collecting certain Personal Data (e.g., health data).
As required by law, to:
Monitor adverse events and product complaints, including to disclose appropriate information to regulators.
Comply transparency reporting requirements in relation to agreements with and/or payments and benefits to healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations.
- Fraud prevention and detection.
Respond to legal requests, for example, from administrative or judicial authorities and complying with subpoenas.
- Investigate and resolve complaints and manage regulatory matters, investigations and litigation.
Where we require your Personal Data to comply with our legal requirements, failure to provide this Personal Data could make it impossible for us comply with our legal obligations.
Sharing of Personal Data
We may have disclosed, and may continue to disclose, each of the categories of Personal Data identified above to:
- Affiliates: We may share your Personal Data with other companies in the argenx group of companies located in and outside of the European Union (“EU”) and/or the European Economic Area (“EEA”) to assist in the delivery of goods / services to you and/or to otherwise manage our business. We also reserve the right to disclose and transfer such information to a subsequent owner, co-owner or operator of the Site or in connection with a merger, consolidation, restructuring, sale of substantially all of our interests and/or assets or other corporate change, including, during the course of any due diligence process.
- Third Parties providing services on our behalf: We may use third party vendors in and outside of the EU/EEA to perform certain services on our behalf, such as technical support, marketing support and back- office services, clinical research organisations and laboratories, hosting services and Site activity tracking and analytics. We may also disclose your Personal Data to our advisors (e.g., attorneys and other professional services firms) in and outside of the EU/EEA.
- Business Partners: We may share your Personal Data with healthcare professionals and organizations, distributors, other members of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry including, researchers with whom we collaborate, companies with whom we co-develop a therapy, or companies with whom we co-promote a product.
- Judicial, Regulatory and Law Enforcement Bodies: We may share your Personal Data as required or permitted by law in connection with a clinical trial, to comply with a subpoena or similar legal process or government request, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is legally required or otherwise necessary to protect our rights and property or the rights, property or safety of others, including to law enforcement agencies, and judicial and regulatory authorities. We may also share your Personal Data with third parties to help detect and protect against fraud or data security vulnerabilities.
We may disclose deidentified patient information. We deidentify data in accordance with the legal standards applicable to the relevant data which, in the United States is the (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(HIPAA) safe harbor methodology, pseudonymization under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the EU/EEA and pseudonymization under the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) for Japan.
Further information as to the potential recipients of your Personal Data is set out in the relevant Privacy Notice.
Transfer of Personal Data to third countries
Your Personal Data can be transferred to countries outside the EU/EEA, including outside the United Kingdom (UK) and Switzerland, to countries that may not offer the same level of data protection as in the EU/EEA or in the relevant country of origin (such as the US). We have put in place appropriate safeguards so that your Personal Data are and remain protected. These include implementing the EU Standard Contractual Clauses which may require the recipient to put in place supplementary measures to ensure an essentially equivalent level of protection is provided, as in the EU/EEA, the UK or Switzerland. We will ensure that your rights and an adequate level of protection essentially equivalent to that ensured within the EU/EEA, UK and Switzerland are guaranteed. You may obtain further information and a copy of the relevant data transfer mechanisms that we have in place by contacting our Global Privacy Office via email at privacy@argenx.com.
Further information as to the international transfer of your Personal Data is set out in the relevant Privacy Notice.
Protection of your Personal Data
We are committed to protecting the security and privacy of your Personal Data. We maintain appropriate security procedures and practices designed to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of Personal Data. These include the use of appropriate technical and organizational measures to restrict access to Personal Data to those of our employees, agents, contractors, or representatives who require access to such information to perform tasks assigned to them by us. These measures shall take into account the state of the art, the costs of implementation and the nature, scope, context and purposes of processing as well as the risk of varying likelihood and severity for the rights and freedoms of natural persons. For instance, we store your Personal Data on servers that have various types of technical and physical access controls, which may include, for instance, if appropriate, encryption. We may also aggregate, pseudonymize or anonymize Personal Data. While we are committed to safeguarding your Personal Data through our information security program, even the most stringent security program may not always not be able to prevent all security breaches.
How long we keep your Personal Data
We keep your Personal Data for the duration that is needed to achieve the purpose for which it was collected. The criteria used to determine the retention periods include: (i) how long the Personal Data is needed to provide / receive the services and operate the business; (ii) the type of Personal Data collected; and (iii) whether we are subject to a legal, contractual or similar obligations to retain the Personal Data (e.g., mandatory data retention laws, government orders to preserve data relevant to an investigation or data that must be retained for the purposes of litigation or disputes). Further information is set out in the relevant Privacy Notice and/or can be obtained by contacting our Global Privacy Office via email at privacy@argenx.com.
Your data privacy rights
You may, where required by applicable law, have the following data privacy rights which may be subject to limitations/restrictions:
- The right to be informed and to request access to and a copy of your Personal Data.
- The right to request that your Personal Data be corrected or deleted.
- The right to request that we restrict our processing of your Personal Data.
- The right to object to the processing of your Personal Data where it is carried out (i) for our legitimate interests unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing, and/or (ii) for direct marketing purposes.
- The right to object to the processing of your Personal Data (including, for direct marketing purposes) or withdraw consent to the processing of your Personal Data.
- The right to request that Personal Data be provided to you or a third party in a machine-readable format.
Please contact our Global Privacy Office via email at privacy@argenx.com in case you wish to exercise any of these above rights, or you wish to complain about the handling of your Personal Data.
You also have, where provided by applicable law, the right to launch a complaint with the competent data protection authority if you believe we did not properly handle your Personal Data or did not respect your rights.
A list of the competent data protection authorities in the EU and their contact details can be found here.
UK residents can contact the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) here.
Additional disclosures for California residents
If you are a California resident, you may have separate rights regarding your Personal Data, in accordance with California law.
California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018
The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”) grants California residents certain rights with respect to their Personal Data, including, as described below, the right to know about and delete, their Personal Data. These rights are subject to certain limitations, however, such as that they do not all apply to certain uses of Personal Data about employees, job applicants, and contractors, or information processed exclusively in the business-to-business context (e.g., information about an individual acting in his or her capacity as a representative of an entity). Where exceptions to the CCPA apply to a request you submit, we will provide you with an explanation.
Right to request disclosure of information we collect or share about you. You can submit a request to us for the following data regarding the Personal Data we have collected about you in the 12 months prior to our receipt of your request (a “request to know”):
- The categories of Personal Data we have collected.
- The categories of sources from which we collected the Personal Data.
- The business or commercial purposes for which we collected the Personal Data.
- The categories of third parties with which we shared the Personal Data.
- The categories of Personal Data we disclosed for a business purpose, and for each category identified, the categories of third parties to whom we disclosed that particular category of Personal Data.
- The specific pieces of Personal Data we collected.
Right to request the deletion of Personal Data we have collected from you. Upon request, we will delete the Personal Data we have collected about you, except for situations where specific information is necessary for us to provide you with a product or service that you requested; perform a contract we entered into with you; maintain the functionality or security of our systems; or comply with or exercise rights provided by the law.
The law also permits us to retain specific information for our exclusively internal use, but only in ways that are compatible with the context in which you provided the information to us or that are reasonably aligned with your expectations based on your relationship with us.
How can you make a request to exercise your rights? To submit requests to know or delete, you may contact us by phone at 1-(833) ARGX 411 or via email at privacy@argenx.com.
How we will handle a request to exercise your rights. For requests to know or delete, we will first acknowledge receipt of the request within 10 business days of receipt of your request. We will provide a substantive response to your request within 45 days from receipt of your request, although we may be allowed to take longer to process your request under certain circumstances. If we expect your request is going to take us longer than normal to fulfill, we’ll let you know.
When you make a request to know or delete your Personal Data, we will take steps to verify your identity. These steps may include asking you for Personal Data, such as your name, address, or other information we maintain about you. If we are unable to verify your identity with the degree of certainty required, we will not be able to respond to the request. We will notify you to explain the basis of the denial.
You are also entitled to submit a request for Personal Data that could be associated with a household as defined in the CCPA. To submit a request to know or delete household Personal Data, such requests must be jointly made by each member of the household, and we will individually verify all the members of the household using the verification criteria explained above, and separately verify that each household member making the request currently resides in the household. If we are unable to verify the identity of each household member with the degree of certainty required, we will not be able to respond to the request. We will notify you to explain the basis of our denial.
You may also designate an authorized agent to submit requests on your behalf. If you do so, you will be required to verify your identity by providing us with certain Personal Data as described above. Additionally, we will also require that you provide the agent with written and signed permission to act on your behalf, and we will separately confirm with you that you provided the agent with permission to submit the request. We will deny the request if the agent is unable to submit proof to us that you have authorized them to act on your behalf or if any of the above verification criteria are not met.
We are committed to honoring your rights. If you exercise any of the CCPA rights explained in this Privacy Policy, we will continue to treat you fairly.
Shine the Light
California's "Shine the Light" law, Civil Code section 1798.83, requires certain businesses to respond to requests from California residents asking about the business's practices related to disclosing certain types of Personal Data to third parties for the third parties' direct marketing purposes. We do not disclose Personal Data to such entities, for such purposes.
Do Not Track
“Do Not Track” signals are options available on your browser to tell operators of websites that you do not wish to have your online activity tracked. We do not engage in the collection of personally identifiable information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or online services, nor do we allow other parties to do so through our Site. Accordingly, we do not process or comply with automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, which may include "do not track" instructions.
Other useful information Changes to Privacy Policy
If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by means of a notice on the Site and will also post an updated version on the Site. Please check back periodically for updates.
Accessibility
We are committed to ensuring that our communications are accessible to people with disabilities. To make accessibility-related requests or report barriers, please contact us by phone at 1 (833) ARGX-411 or via email at privacy@argenx.com.
Minors
The Site is not designed for or intentionally targeted at children 16 years of age or younger. Further, we do not knowingly sell the Personal Data of children under 16 years of age. If we become aware that a child under 16 has provided us with Personal Data, we will take reasonable steps to remove such information from our systems and terminate the applicable account.
Links to other websites and social media buttons
This Site contains links to other websites that are not operated by argenx, for which argenx is not responsible and to which this Privacy Policy does not apply. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of all of the destination websites you visit.
We also display social media buttons and a WhatsApp button on the Site. When you click on any of those buttons, your Personal Data may be transferred to these companies, and they may also set cookies or other tracking technologies on your browser. The privacy policies and terms of use of each of those companies govern the collection and use of your Personal Data when you click on their buttons on our Site. Prior to installing such third- party cookies or enabling you to click through to a third-party website, we will have requested your consent to do so. Where consent was not given, the cookies will not be installed and the click-through to third-party websites will only occur after a pop-up notifying you that you are leaving the argenx space and requesting whether you wish to continue.
Contact details
If you have questions, feedback, or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy and data protection laws, or if you wish to exercise your privacy rights, please contact our Global Privacy Office via email at privacy@argenx.com.
Last updated: 11 July 2023
