Privacy notice

This Privacy Notice explains who MV BioTherapeutics SA (“MV” and/or “Company” and/or “we”) is, how we collect, share and use personal information about you, and how you can exercise your privacy rights. It applies to all individuals who access our website at https://www.mv-bio.com (“Website“). We recommend that you read this Privacy Notice in full to ensure you are fully informed.  

What does MV do?

MV BioTherapeutics SA is a Swiss microbiome biotherapeutics company. For more information about MV please see the “About” section of our Website at https://www.mv-bio.com/about/ 

Whose personal information we obtain 

We obtain personal information about the following types of individuals: clinical trial participants, patients, patient family members, caregivers or advocates, physicians and other health care professionals, clinical trial investigators, researchers, website users, job applicants, and other individuals who interact with us, our service providers or business partners. 

How we obtain personal information 

We obtain personal information: 

  • Directly from individuals 
  • Through our Website 
  • From healthcare professionals 
  • From contract research organizations and clinical trial investigators 
  • From individuals enrolled in clinical trials 
  • From government agencies or public records 
  • From third party service providers or business partners 
  • From industry and patient groups and associations 
  • From social media or other public forums (including adverse event information or product quality complaints) 

Types of personal information we obtain

We may obtain the following types of personal information: 

Health and medical information, such as medical insurance details, information about physical and mental health conditions and diagnoses, treatments for medical conditions, genetic information, family medical history, and medications an individual may take, including the dosage, timing, and frequency, that we collect in connection with managing clinical trials, conducting research, providing patient support programs, managing compassionate use and expanded access programs, and tracking adverse event reports; 

Contact information (personal and business), such as name, job title and employer name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and emergency contact information; 

Biographical and demographic information, such as age, date of birth, gender, marital status, ethnicity, and information regarding any parents or legal guardians; 

Professional credentials, such as educational and professional history, institutional affiliations, and other information you include on a CV or resume; 

Payment-related information, such as when we need to pay for professional services that individuals may provide to us, such as tax identification number and financial account information; 

Correspondence and other information you provide to us, including in emails, on phone calls, and in market research surveys; 

Information obtained automatically by us, our service providers, and third party partners, who may automatically log information about you, your computer or mobile devices, and your activity over time on the Website and other online services, such as: 

  • Device information that is collected automatically (such as your IP address, your device’s operating system, your Internet service provider and location, browser type and language, your unique device ID (persistent/non-persistent), hardware type, medial access control address and the website you visited before browsing to our Website); and 
  • Online activity information that is collected automatically (such as information about the Website content you access) and information about the date, time and duration of your visit to our Website. 

How we use personal information 

We use personal information for the following purposes and as otherwise described in this Privacy Statement or at the time of collection: 

To communicate with you, including to: 

  • Provide you with investor, media or other materials; 
  • Send you copies of our press releases or other information; 
  • Send you surveys; and 
  • Respond to your comments, questions, and service-related requests. 

To perform and administer clinical trials, research and product-improvement activities, including to: 

  • Staff and manage clinical trials, including by recruiting investigators and participants; 
  • Track and respond to safety and product quality concerns (including product recalls); 
  • Support public health initiatives, symposia, conferences, and scientific, educational and volunteer events; 
  • Define and manage appropriate patient engagement activities, and patient support programs (including to provide co-pay and other financial assistance where available); 
  • Identify and engage thought leaders and external experts; and 
  • Attribute authorship to academic materials.

To provide payments, including to: 

  • Pay for services that physicians, researchers and other individuals may provide to us. 

For compliance, fraud prevention, and safety. We may also use personal information as we believe necessary or appropriate to:

  • Comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas or requests from government authorities; 
  • Comply with regulatory monitoring and reporting obligations, such as those related to adverse events, safety, and financial disclosures; 
  • Protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of you or others; and 
  • Protect, investigate and deter against fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical or illegal activity. 

To facilitate our recruitment activities, including to: 

  • process employment applications, such as by evaluating a job candidate for an employment activity, and monitoring recruitment statistics. 

How we share personal information

Affiliates. We may share personal information with our corporate parent, subsidiaries, and affiliates, for purposes consistent with this Privacy Statement. 

Service providers. We may engage other companies and individuals to perform services on our behalf, including: 

  • Companies that analyze data and provide business support (such as data storage and technology services); 
  • Companies that support the quality and safety of our products; 
  • Companies that assist us in clinical research and development activities; and 

These service providers may have access to personal information in connection with performing services on our behalf. These service providers may use your information only as directed by MV and in a manner consistent with this Privacy Notice, and are prohibited from using or disclosing your information for any other purpose. 

Professional advisors. We may disclose personal information to professional advisors, such as lawyers, bankers, auditors, and insurers, where necessary in the course of the professional services that they render to us. 

Research and business partners. We may also share personal information with healthcare professionals, researchers, institutions, academics, public health organizations, and publishers for purposes consistent with this Privacy Statement. We may disclose personal information to partners or collaborators in connection with the research and development of our products. 

Compliance, fraud prevention and safety. We may share personal information for the compliance, fraud prevention and safety purposes described above. 

Why we process your personal information 

Depending on our relationship, we process your personal information relying on the respective lawful ground each time.  

Consent: If MV relies on consent for the processing of personal information, we will provide transparent notice of the purposes for which we seek such consent prior to the time we collect your personal information. You will be entitled to withdraw that consent at any time. If MV wishes to process any special categories of personal information, such as health data, MV will obtain your explicit consent for such processing. 

Contractual NecessityMV processes personal information to fulfill our contracts with our business partners and service providers, such as for rendering payment or communicating with health care professionals or consultants. 

Legal ObligationMV processes personal information as specifically required by applicable legal obligations, such as laws and regulations that require MV to process personal information for purposes of obtaining medical research approvals and spend transparency disclosures. 

Legitimate InterestsMV processes personal information subject to its own legitimate interests, such as to develop, administer and support research; to operate, evaluate and improve our business; to facilitate and manage patient advocacy and engagement programs; to support our recruitment activities. 

How long we keep your personal information 

We keep personal information for as long as is necessary to accomplish the purposes for which it was collected, unless a longer period is required under applicable law or is needed to resolve disputes or protect our legal rights. 

The criteria used to determine the period for which personal information about you will be stored varies depending on the legal basis under which we process such personal information: 

  • Consent: For the period of time necessary to fulfill the underlying agreement with you, subject to your right, under certain circumstances, to have certain personal information about you erased (see Your Rights below). 
  • Contractual Necessity: For the duration of the contract plus some additional limited period of time that is necessary to comply with law or that represents the limitation period for legal claims that could arise from the contractual relationship. 
  • Legal Obligation: For the duration of time we are legally obligated to keep the information. 
  • Legitimate Interests: For a reasonable period of time based on the particular interest, taking into account the fundamental interests and the rights and freedoms of the data subjects. 

International data transfers 

MV may transfer personal information outside of its country of origin or to entities located outside the European Economic Area, including entities located in the United States for the purposes, and in the manner, set out in this privacy notice, including for processing and storage by service providers and affiliates in connection with such purposes. In all situations, MV takes reasonable steps to ensure that your privacy is protected. Such steps include, but are not limited to, implementing privacy, security, and contractual controls, as well as steps noted in this privacy notice, as required by applicable law. 

MV endeavors to obtain assurances from its service providers and affiliates that they will safeguard personal information consistent with this privacy notice. An example of appropriate assurances that may be provided by service providers and affiliates includes a contractual obligation that they provide at least the same level of protection as is required by MV’s privacy principles set out in this privacy notice. Where MV has knowledge that a service provider or affiliate is using or disclosing personal information in a manner contrary to this privacy noticeMV will take appropriate steps to prevent or stop the use or disclosure. 

Links to third-party services

We may provide links to other websites, services, and applications that are not operated or controlled by us (“Third-Party Services”). This privacy notice does not apply to the Third-Party Services. We encourage you to review and understand the privacy practices of any Third-Party Services before providing any information to or through them. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the Third-Party Service that provides the feature. 

Security  of your personal information 

MV processes personal information in a manner that takes all reasonable steps to ensure appropriate security and confidentiality of the personal information, including protection against unauthorized or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destructionalteration or damage, using appropriate technical or organizational measures. Such measures may include but are not limited to: the encryption of communications via SSL, encryption of information while it is in storage, firewalls, access controls, separation of duties, and similar security protocols.  

Where third parties are engaged to process personal information on our behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality and are, also, obliged to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure the security of personal information 

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal information security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.   

Privacy statement  for children 

Our website is directed at an adult audience. We do not purposely process any personal information from anyone we know to be under the age of majority in the countries where the website is accessed. Personal information of persons under the age of majority will be processed only with prior consent of the parent or holder of parental responsibility. Such legal representative has the right, upon request, to view the information provided by the child and/or to require that it be deleted. 

Your rights

With regards to your personal information processed by MV through this website, you have following rights: 

  • right of access, meaning the right to obtain a confirmation from our part as to whether or not your personal information is processed, as well as access to personal information and information on the processing; 
  • right to rectification, meaning the right to have, without undue delay, the rectification of inaccurate personal information and/or the completion of incomplete personal information; 
  • right to erasure/right to be forgotten, meaning the right to erase personal information without undue delay if these data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes of processing for which they were collected and there is no other legal ground for processing, if personal information were unlawfully collected or they must be erased for compliance with a legal obligation; 
  • right to restriction of processing applicable if (i) the accuracy of the personal information is contested by you, (ii) processing is unlawful and you oppose the erasure of the personal information, requesting in exchange the restriction of their use, (iii) we do not longer need the personal information, but you require them for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, (iv) you objected to the processing pending the verification whether our legitimate grounds override yours; 
  • right to object to the processing, except for the cases where we prove that we have legitimate reasons for the processing of your personal information, reasons that override your interests, rights and freedoms or for the ascertaining, exercise or defense of a  right in front of a court of law; 
  • right to withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal; 
  • right to data portability, meaning the right to receive your personal information that you provided us with for the purposes stated in the hereby notice, in a structure, commonly used and machine-readable format, as well as the right to transmit these data to another controller; 
  • right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects or similarly affects you, except for the case where such processing is necessary for the performance of a contract or authorized by law. 

The satisfaction of your rights depends on the purposes of their processing by MV.  

If you have an inquiry or complaint regarding this Notice or the collection or use of your Personal Information, including any rights of access, ability to limit the use or disclosure of Personal Information, or to correct or delete inaccurate Personal Information, please contact us via  https://www.mv-bio.com/contact/.   

MV will endeavor to respond to all reasonable requests in a timely manner, and in any case, within any time limits prescribed by applicable local law. 

If you are an EU resident and have any complaints regarding our privacy practices, you have the right to file a complaint with your local data protection authority. 

Changes  to privacy notice

We keep our Privacy Notice under regular review and we will place any updates on this page, without prior notice. However, processing of your personal information shall follow the directions notified within the applicable Privacy Notice, in effect upon the collection date.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or concerns about the way MV processes your personal information, or require assistance in managing your privacy choices, please get in touch with us at: 

MV BioTherapeutics SA 

Via Belsoggiorno 1
6500 Bellinzona
Switzerland

Tel: +41 58 666 72 25