Privacy Policy

Genentech, Inc. ("Genentech") and Biogen Idec, Inc. ("Biogen Idec") respect the privacy of visitors to its websites, and recognize your need for appropriate protection and management of personally identifiable information you share with us (any information by which you can be identified, including but not limited to, name, address, email address, and telephone number). That is why we have established this Privacy Policy, so that you are informed about how we treat any personally identifiable information that you provide to us in the course of using this website. This Privacy Policy will inform you of:

  1. How you will be informed of updates to this Privacy Policy
  2. What personally identifiable information of yours we may collect from you through our website
  3. How we may use your personally identifiable information
  4. Limits on how we would share and disclose your personally identifiable information
  5. Our policy regarding links to third party websites
  6. Security of our website
  7. How you can correct and update your personally identifiable information

Please note that the Genentech and Biogen Idec websites are directed towards users who reside in the United States of America. It is not our intent to gather personally identifiable information from individuals residing outside the U.S.

Privacy Policy Updates

Due to the Internet's rapidly evolving nature, Genentech and Biogen Idec may need to update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If so, Genentech and Biogen Idec will post its updated Privacy Policy on our website located at www.rituxan.com/lymphoma so users are always aware of what personally identifiable information we may collect and how we may use this information. Genentech and Biogen Idec encourage you to review this Privacy Policy regularly for any changes. Your continued use of this website will be subject to the then-current Privacy Policy.

Information Collection and Use

You can generally visit our website without revealing any personally identifiable information about yourself. However, to access certain options and services we may ask you to provide certain personally identifiable information and without providing such personally identifiable information, you may be unable to access certain options and services. We (along with our third party partners engaged to provide marketing and advertising on our behalf) collect personally identifiable information about you only if you voluntarily provide it to us and you have the option not to provide any personally identifiable information to us. The following is personally identifiable information that you may voluntarily provide to us and how we use it:

  • Surveys Information obtained from you on web surveys, such as contact information (name and shipping address), demographic information (zip code, age level) and medical condition. We may use this personally identifiable information to provide you with information and services for which you have expressed an interest or that you may find useful based on your answers in a survey. Additionally, we may refer to your personally identifiable information to better understand your needs and how we can improve our website.
  • Newsletters. Information obtained from you from your request to subscribe to a newsletter, such as contact information (name and email address). We may use this personally identifiable information to deliver the newsletters that you have elected to receive.
  • Registration. Information obtained from you on registration forms used to process your requests for services and information, such as contact information (name, address, email address), password, username or code, age, date of birth, gender, ethnicity and medical condition. This registration information may also be gathered if you register for certain services via fax or mail. We may use this information to send you a welcoming email to verify your username and password, website updates, special offers, notices regarding relevant medical conditions and treatment, or other information responsive to the data that you provide to us. Additionally, we may refer to your personally identifiable information to better understand your needs and how we can improve our website.
  • Email Content to a Friend. Information obtained from you regarding friend or family name and email address, if you elect to use our referral service for sending some of our website content to friends and family. We may use this personally identifiable information to automatically send the friend or family member a one-time email inviting them to visit the website. We may store this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email.

Genentech and Biogen Idec are the owners of all information collected on this website.

Minors

You must be 18 years of age or older to submit registration or survey information. If you are under the age of 18 and wish to register to obtain further information or be included in a survey, then your parent or legal guardian must register to obtain the information or to participate in the survey.

Cookies and GIF files

Some of our websites may use cookie technology to identify users who have previously visited so the user is recognized upon return, thereby saving them time while on our website. A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's hard drive containing information about the user. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our website. Once the user closes their browser, the cookie simply terminates. If a user rejects the cookie, they may still use our website. A cookie may be placed by us, or by vendors or service agencies who work with us or with our partners.

This website may use pixels, or transparent GIF files, to help manage online advertising. These GIF files are provided by our ad management partners. These files enable these partners to recognize a unique file on your web browser, which in turn enables us to learn which advertisements bring users to our website. The information contained in GIF files that we collect and share with our ad management partners is anonymous and is not personally identifiable.

Log Files and Aggregate Information

We may track the total number of visitors to our website, the number of visitors to each page of our website, IP addresses, and the domain names of our users' Internet Service Providers, and we may analyze these data for trends and statistics in the aggregate, but such information will be in aggregate form only and it will not contain personally identifiable data. Such aggregate information is not linked to any personally identifiable information that can identify any individual person.

We may use such aggregate information to analyze trends, administer the website, track user's movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. We may share this aggregate information with our corporate partners and contracted vendors to assist us in operating the website and to enable them to better understand Genentech's and Biogen Idec's business.

Sharing and Disclosure

We may provide your personally identifiable information that we collect and the data generated by cookies to a parent, subsidiary or affiliate entity within the Genentech and Biogen Idec corporate families, partner entities, and the vendors and service agencies that we may engage to assist us. For example, we may provide your personally identifiable information to an organization in order to complete a service (eg, send out newsletter emails you have requested), to assist us in reviewing the data or to provide marketing or advertising on our behalf. Any organization to which we provide such personally identifiable information is also required to keep your personally identifiable information confidential in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We will also disclose your personally identifiable information if we reasonably believe we are required to do so by law, regulation or other government authority (such as reporting safety information to the Food and Drug Administration). We will not sell your personally identifiable information to any other company or organization except we may transfer your personally identifiable information to a successor entity upon a merger, consolidation or other corporate reorganization in which Genentech or Biogen Idec participates or to a purchaser of all or substantially all of Genentech's or Biogen Idec's assets. Such successor entity shall be bound by the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy.

Links to Third Party Sites

Some of our websites may contain links to other websites on the Internet that are not under the control of or maintained by Genentech or Biogen Idec. Such links do not constitute an endorsement by Genentech or Biogen Idec of those other websites, the content displayed therein, or the persons or entities associated therewith. You acknowledge that Genentech and Biogen Idec are providing these links to you only as a convenience, and you agree that Genentech and Biogen Idec are not responsible for the content of such websites. Your use of these other linked websites is subject to the respective terms of use and privacy policies located on the linked websites.

Security

Genentech and Biogen Idec and their third party providers may employ procedural and technological security measures, consistent with industry practice. Such measures are reasonably designed to protect your personally identifiable information from loss, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction. Genentech and Biogen Idec may use encryption, password protection, secure socket layers, internal restrictions and other security measures to help prevent unauthorized access to your personally identifiable information.

Correction/Updating Personally Identifiable Information

Genentech and Biogen Idec provide you with the ability to review and correct any of the personally identifiable information that you have provided to us. If you wish to correct any information provided to us, you may update your contact information directly by accessing your account or registration.You may also "opt-out" of receiving emails and other communications from us by using the unsubscribe feature included in the emails we send.

Privacy Policy Last updated: October 26, 2007.

INDICATIONS AND USAGE

Rituxan® (rituximab) is indicated for the treatment of patients with:

BOXED WARNINGS and Additional Important Safety Information

WARNING: FATAL INFUSION REACTIONS, TUMOR LYSIS SYNDROME (TLS), SEVERE MUCOCUTANEOUS REACTIONS, and PROGRESSIVE MULTIFOCAL LEUKOENCEPHALOPATHY (PML)

Infusion Reactions
Rituxan administration can result in serious, including fatal infusion reactions. Deaths within 24 hours of Rituxan infusion have occurred. Approximately 80% of fatal infusion reactions occurred in association with the first infusion. Carefully monitor patients during infusions. Discontinue Rituxan infusion and provide medical treatment for Grade 3 or 4 infusion reactions.

Tumor Lysis Syndrome (TLS)
Acute renal failure requiring dialysis with instances of fatal outcome can occur in the setting of TLS following treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients with Rituxan.

Severe Mucocutaneous Reactions
Severe, including fatal, mucocutaneous reactions can occur in patients receiving Rituxan.

Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML)
JC virus infection resulting in PML and death can occur in patients receiving Rituxan.

Rituxan has also been associated with fatal hepatitis B reactivation with fulminant hepatitis, other serious viral infections, cardiovascular events, renal toxicity, and bowel obstruction and perforation.

The most common adverse reactions of Rituxan (incidence ≥25%) observed in patients with NHL are infusion reactions, fever, chills, infection, asthenia, and lymphopenia. The incidence of infusion reactions was highest during the first infusion (77%) and decreased with each subsequent infusion. These infusion reactions generally have resolved with slowing or interruption of the infusion and with supportive care.

Indication-Specific Safety

Single Agent Rituxan for Relapsed or Refractory, Low-Grade or Follicular NHL
The most common adverse reactions of Rituxan (incidence ≥ 25%) observed in patients with relapsed or refractory, low-grade or follicular NHL are infusion reactions, fever, chills, infection, asthenia, and lymphopenia. Respiratory system events were reported in 38% of patients, and 31% reported infectious events. Grade 3 and 4 cytopenias were reported in 48% of patients and included lymphopenia (40%), neutropenia (6%), leukopenia (4%), anemia (3%), and thrombocytopenia (2%).

Rituxan in Combination with CVP for Previously Untreated, Follicular NHL
Patients in the R-CVP arm had higher incidences of infusional toxicity and of neutropenia as compared to those in the CVP arm. The following adverse reactions occurred more frequently (≥5%) in patients receiving R-CVP compared to CVP alone: rash (17% vs 5%), cough (15% vs 6%), flushing (14% vs 3%), rigors (10% vs 2%), pruritus (10% vs 1%), neutropenia (8% vs 3%), and chest tightness (7% vs 1%).

Single Agent Rituxan for Low-Grade NHL, after First-Line CVP Chemotherapy
The following common adverse reactions were reported more frequently (≥5%) in patients receiving Rituxan following CVP compared with those who received no further therapy: fatigue (39% vs 14%), anemia (35% vs 20%), peripheral sensory neuropathy (30% vs 18%), infections (19% vs 9%), pulmonary toxicity (18% vs 10%), hepatobiliary toxicity (17% vs 7%), rash and/or pruritus (17% vs 5%), arthralgia (12% vs 3%), and weight gain (11% vs 4%). Neutropenia was the only Grade 3 or 4 adverse reaction that occurred more frequently (≥2%) in the Rituxan arm compared with those who received no further therapy (4% vs 1%).

Rituxan in Combination with CHOP Chemotherapy for DLBCL
The following adverse reactions, regardless of severity, were reported more frequently (≥5%) in patients age ≥60 years receiving R-CHOP as compared to CHOP alone: pyrexia (56% vs 46%), lung disorder (31% vs 24%), cardiac disorder (29% vs 21%), and chills (13% vs 4%). In the GELA LNH 98-5 study, a review of cardiac toxicity determined that supraventricular arrhythmias or tachycardia accounted for most of the difference in cardiac disorders (4.5% for R-CHOP vs. 1.0% for CHOP).

The following Grade 3 or 4 adverse reactions occurred more frequently among patients in the R-CHOP arm compared with those in the CHOP arm: thrombocytopenia (9% vs 7%) and lung disorder (6% vs 3%). Other Grade 3 or 4 adverse reactions reported more frequently among patients receiving R-CHOP were viral infection (GELA LNH 98-5 study), neutropenia (GELA LNH 98-5 and MInT studies), and anemia (MInT study).

For additional safety information, please see the full prescribing information, including BOXED WARNINGS and Medication Guide.