NHS England Data Sharing Remote Audit: IQVIA Ltd

Purpose

This report records the key findings of a remote data sharing audit of IQVIA Ltd between 7 and 11 July 2025. It provides an evaluation of how IQVIA Ltd conforms to the requirements of:

• the data sharing framework contract (DSFC) CON-290392-M1B6L (Version 2.02)
• the data sharing agreement (DSA) DARS-NIC-373563-N8Z9J-v14.5

• the organisation’s own policies, processes and procedures

This DSA covers the provision of the following datasets: 

The Controller and Processor is IQVIA Ltd.

IQVIA Ltd requires access to NHS England data for the purpose of providing commercial services to clients in the health sector or clients that support the Health Sector.

IQVIA Ltd is a commercial company which generates profit from providing services and solutions, including analysis, interpretation and reports, to its customers. Those analyses, interpretations and reports assist such customers in supporting the understanding of care pathways, delivering clarity to hospitals on their use of medicines, enabling the development of diagnostic algorithms, enabling patients to be recruited to trials, and  supporting healthcare commissioners and providers in achieving exceptional Data quality. These services can enable the development of health economic models that evaluate care delivery in relation to outcomes achieved for the patient and in so doing, help advance and benefit healthcare in a variety of different ways.

The interviews during the audit were conducted through video conferencing.

This is an exception report based on the criteria expressed in the Data Sharing Audit Guide version 4.

Audit type and scope 

Data recipient’s acceptance statement

IQVIA Ltd has reviewed this report and confirmed that it is accurate.

Data recipient’s action plan

IQVIA Ltd will establish a corrective action plan to address each finding shown in the findings table. The Audit Team will validate this plan and the resultant actions will be followed up by the IG Risk and Assurance team at NHS England to confirm the findings have been satisfactorily addressed. 

The Audit Team has identified 5 opportunities for improvement which are provided for reference only and will not be followed up as part of any post audit review.  

The following table identifies the 2 agreement nonconformities and 1 organisation nonconformity raised as part of the audit.

The following table identifies 5 opportunity opportunities for improvement which could help an organisation improve its controls or processes. 

Use of data

IQVIA Ltd confirmed that the datasets were only being processed and used for the purposes defined in the DSA and were not being linked with another dataset.  

Data location

IQVIA Ltd confirmed that processing and storage locations, including disaster recovery and backups, of the datasets were limited to the location shown in the following table. These locations conform with the territory of use defined in the DSA.

Backup retention

The duration for which data may be retained on backup media is:

The audit was based upon a sample of the data recipient’s activities, as observed by the Audit Team. The findings detailed in this audit report may not include all possible nonconformities which may exist. In addition, as the audit interviews were conducted through a video conference platform, certain controls that would normally be assessed whilst onsite could not be witnessed. 

NHS England has prepared this audit report for its own purposes. As a result, NHS England does not assume any liability to any person or organisation for any loss or damage suffered or costs incurred by it arising out of, or in connection with, this report, however such loss or damage is caused. NHS England does not assume liability for any loss occasioned to any person or organisation acting or refraining from acting as a result of any information contained in this report.