Updated:  June 2, 2023

Privacy Policy for the PhRMA Website and The Catalyst Blog

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (“PhRMA,” “we,” “our,” “us”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of visitors to our online properties.  This privacy policy (the "Privacy Policy") applies to our websites, mobile applications, and other online services that link to this Privacy Policy (the “Services”).   By using the Services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

1. Information Collection

You generally are not required to provide information about yourself when you visit the Services.  However, we may ask you for some or all of the following types of information when you access various content or features, submit information to us, or directly contact us with questions or feedback:

• Contact information, such as name, e-mail address, and postal address;
• Demographic information, such as gender, age, income, and residency status;
• Health-related information;
• Information about your eligibility for certain insurance programs;
• Geolocation information and zip code information;
• Communications preferences and information about your interests;
• Search queries;
• Correspondence and other information that you send to us; and
• Additional information as otherwise described to you at the point of collection or pursuant to your consent.

We also may collect certain information automatically when you visit the Services, including:

• Your Internet Protocol (IP) address, which is the number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet and that can sometimes be used to derive your general geographic area;
• Other unique identifiers, including mobile device identification numbers;
• Your browser type and operating system;
• Sites you visited before and after visiting the Services;
• Pages you view and links you click on within the Services;
• Information collected through cookies, web beacons, Local Shared Objects, and other technologies;
• Information about your interactions with e-mail messages, such as the links clicked on and whether the messages were received, opened, or forwarded; and
• Standard Server Log Information.

 2.  Use of Information

We may use information that we collect through the Services for a variety of purposes, including to:

• Provide you with the services, newsletters, and information you request and respond to correspondence that we receive from you;
• Contact you via email and otherwise about services that we think might be of interest to you;
• Maintain or administer the Services, perform business analyses, or for other internal purposes to improve the quality of our business, the Services, and other services we offer;
• Customize and personalize your use of the Services; and
• As otherwise described to you at the point of collection or pursuant to your consent.

 3.  Sharing of Information

We are committed to maintaining your trust, and we want you to understand when and with whom we may share the information we collect.

• Service Providers: We may share your information with service providers that perform certain functions or services on our behalf (such as to host the Services, fulfill requests, provide services, manage databases, perform analyses, provide customer service, or send communications for us).
• Partners and Members: We may share your information with our members and with select business partners.  These entities may use your information to make predictions about your interests and may provide you with special offers, promotional materials, advertisements, and other materials.
• Business Transfer: If we sell all or part of our business, or make a sale or transfer of assets, or are otherwise involved in a merger or business transfer, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy, a business reorganization, or similar event, we may transfer your information as part of such transaction.
• Administrative or Legal Process: We may disclose your information to third parties in order to protect the legal rights, safety, and security of our organization, our corporate affiliates, subsidiaries, business partners, and the users of our Services; enforce our Terms of Use; respond to and resolve claims or complaints; prevent fraud or for risk management purposes; and comply with or respond to law enforcement or legal process or a request for cooperation by a government or other entity, whether or not legally required.
• Other Parties With Your Express or Implied Consent: We may share information with other third parties when you consent to such sharing. 
• Aggregate Information: We may share aggregate information, such as demographic and usage statistics, with advertisers, sponsors or other organizations.

In addition, we may allow third parties to place and read their own cookies, web beacons, Local Shared Objects, and similar technologies to collect information through the Services.  For example, our third-party service providers may use these technologies to collect information that helps us with traffic measurement, research, and analytics.

4.  Links To Other Web Sites

The Services may contain links to other websites or online services that are operated and maintained by third parties and that are not under the control of or maintained by us.  Such links do not constitute an endorsement by us of those other websites, the content displayed therein, or the persons or entities associated therewith.  This Privacy Policy does not apply to this third-party content.  We encourage you to review the privacy policies of these third-party websites or services.

5.  Security

We have adopted security procedures to help protect against loss, misuse, and unauthorized access to the information you provide to us.  Please note that no data transmission or storage can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  As a result, while we strive to protect your information and privacy, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you disclose or transmit to the Services and cannot be responsible for the theft, destruction, or inadvertent disclosure of your information.

6.  Children’s Privacy

The Services are directed to a general audience. The Services do not knowingly collect, use, or disclose personal information from children under the age of 13 without prior parental consent, except as permitted by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”).  If we learn that we have collected personal information from a user under 13, we will promptly delete personal information collected from that user.

7.  Changes To This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in our privacy practices. We will post a prominent notice through our Services to notify you of any material change, and indicate at the top of the notice when it was most recently updated.

8.  Your California Privacy Rights

We do not share information that we collect with third parties for the third party’s direct marketing purposes.

Some web browsers may transmit “do-not-track” signals to the websites with which the user communicates.  Because of differences in how web browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they even are aware of them.  Because there currently is no industry standard concerning what, if anything, websites should do when they receive such signals, we currently do not take action in response to these signals.  If and when a final standard is established and accepted, we will reassess how to respond to these signals.  In some cases, third parties may be able to collect information about a user’s online activities over time and across different websites when he or she uses our Services.

9.  Social Networking Services

PhRMA has worked with certain third-party social media providers to offer you their social networking services through our Services.  For example, you can use third-party social networking services, including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, and others to share information about your experience on our Services with your friends and followers on those social networking services.  These social networking services may be able to collect information about you, including your activity on our Services.  These third-party social networking services also may notify your friends, both on our Services and on the social networking services themselves, that you are a user of our Services or about your use of our Services, in accordance with applicable law and their own privacy policies.  If you choose to access or make use of third-party social networking services, we may receive information about you that you have made available to those social networking services, including information about your contacts on those social networking services.

10. International Users

Please note that the Services are directed towards users who reside in the United States. When you use the Services, your information is stored and processed in and the United States, and/or transferred to other countries and territories, pursuant to the laws of the United States.  While some of these countries may not offer the same level of privacy protection as your own, we commit to uphold the privacy protections as explained in this Policy.

11. Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

We and third parties may use cookies, pixel tags (sometimes referred to as “web beacons” or “clear GIFs”), Local Shared Objects (sometimes referred to as “Flash Cookies”), and similar methods of storage (collectively “Tracking Technologies”).

• Cookies: These are small bits of code stored by your computer’s web browser that may automatically identify your browser to the Services whenever your computer is used to visit the Services.
• Pixel tags: These are small images or pieces of data embedded in images that can recognize cookies, the time and date a page is viewed, a description of the page where the pixel tag is placed, and similar information from your computer or device.
• Local Shared Objects: These are similar to standard cookies but can be larger and are downloaded to a computer or mobile device by the Adobe Flash media player.

We use the following cookies on our site:

• Strictly Necessary Cookies: These cookies are essential to provide you with services available through our website and to enable you to use certain features of our website. Without these cookies, we cannot provide you certain services on our website; as a result these cookies do not require your consent.
• Functionality Cookies: These cookies are used to provide you with a more personalized experience on our website and to remember choices you make when you use our website. For example, we may use functionality cookies to remember your language preferences or remember your login details.
• Analytics Cookies: These cookies are used to collect information to analyze the traffic to our website and how visitors are using our website. For example, these cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the website or the pages you visit which helps us to understand how we can improve our website site for you.
• Advertisement Cookies: These cookies are used to show advertising that is likely to be of interest to you based on your browsing habits. These cookies, as served by our content and/or advertising providers, may combine information they collected from our website with other information they have independently collected relating to your web browser's activities across their network of websites.

We only used functionality, analytics and advertising cookies with your consent, which we will request and obtain through our cookie banner. You can change your preferences at any time by clicking here. You can also remove any cookies already stored on your computer, but keep in mind that deleting cookies may prevent you from using parts of our website. You can also decide if and how your computer will accept a cookie by configuring your preferences or options in your browser.  You may also take additional steps beyond changing your browser settings, such as controlling Local Shared Objects through the instructions on Adobe’s Setting Manager page.  However, if you choose to reject these Tracking Technologies, you may not be able to use certain services or features on the Services.

The below list details the cookies used in our website.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the privacy practices of the Services, please contact us via the "Contact Us" link below

Contact Us