In just under five months, the European Union’s data protection laws will undergo their most dramatic changes in twenty years. The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) aims to give control back to EU citizens and residents, and sets out to reshape how businesses process and handle personal data. Complying with these new regulations by the May 2018 deadline couldn’t be more important for the life science sector, where the processing of huge amounts of personal data will make companies vulnerable to non-compliance penalties of up to €20 million, or four per cent of annual worldwide turnover (whichever is higher).
But GDPR has been dubbed “the big elephant in the boardroom,” with many life science organisations still uncertain about what the changes mean for them, or even how to ensure compliance. To get you up to speed, we’ve put together an overview below, including some key resources and steps you can take to ensure you’re compliant well before the deadline hits.