1. WARNING

Your access to and use of the irontherapy.org website (this "Website"), which is owned and operated by Medical Education Global Solutions ("MedEd GS"), shall be governed by the following terms and conditions of usage ("Contract Conditions"). It is important to read the following Contract Conditions carefully; you will be authorized to access the data and information collected and published by the Website only if you accept these fully in their entirety and without reservation by clicking on ACCEPT.

The Contract Conditions constitute a separate contract and a firm, irrevocable undertaking on your part.

The Contract Conditions set out the way in which you may visit and use this Website and consult any written or other document presented on or through the Website or made available by using the latter including, without restricting the foregoing, texts, images, computer software and codes (the Content).

By clicking the ACCEPT button at the end of these Contract Conditions, you indicate your acceptance of these Contract Conditions and agree to be bound by them. When you access the Website and use it, you indicate that you accept to be bound by the Contract Conditions including, without restricting the foregoing, the notice concerning confidentiality and Patient Information set out below. If you do not accept these Contract Conditions, you should not and cannot access or use the Website. ITO may amend the present Contract at any time by updating the present posting and asking you to accept the revised terms. Use of the Website after such amendments have been posted and you have accepted them indicates your acceptance of the amended conditions.

You should not use the information contained on the Website in place of a consultation with medical or legal advisers or other professional advisers. You should not take action, or refrain from taking action, on the strength of information obtained from the Website without first consulting competent professional advisers.

2. WEBSITE FOR USE ONLY BY MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS

THIS WEBSITE IS INTENDED SOLELY FOR THE USE OF PHYSICIANS AND OTHER AUTHORIZED MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS. BY ACCEPTING THESE CONTRACT CONDITIONS, YOU REPRESENT AND WARRANT THAT YOU ARE A PHYSICIAN OR OTHER MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL FULLY LICENSED TO PRACTICE IN YOUR PARTICULAR COUNTRY, JURISDICTION OR LOCALE.

3. THIS WEBSITE DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE

ITO makes the Website and its Content available solely to medical professionals who have been authorized to access the Website in order to assist such professionals in forming a community of members who are all professional and informed readers.

The Content available through this Website is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for the professional judgement of a health care professional in diagnosing or treating patients. We do not give medical advice, nor do we provide medical or diagnostic services. Your reliance upon Content obtained by you at or through the Site is solely at your own risk. The Content should be considered only a source of partial information that a licensed physician or other qualified health provider can use to assist his/her practice.

YOUR USE OF THIS WEBSITE, INCLUDING ANY COMMUNICATIONS VIA THIS WEBSITE OR OTHERWISE WITH ITO DOES NOT ESTABLISH A DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP.

The documents and information available on or through this Website contain professional data intended solely for licensed physicians or other qualified health providers, and have been compiled and set out accordingly.

You have the responsibility of carefully considering and independently assessing the Content offered on this Website. The Content should be used only after consultation with a specialist and must not be taken out of the scientific and editorial context in which it was compiled and entered.

On this point, and in general, ITO encourages users of the Website to exercise extreme caution when using the medical information it makes available on or through the Website.

Although the content of the ITO Website has been reviewed by the Website's editorial committee and by a panel of experts made up of researchers, scientists, practitioners and members of the pharmaceutical industry, ITO does not under any circumstances guarantee the veracity or medical timelessness of the documents and information published.

ITO does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the Website.

Under no circumstances may the information and documents available on or through the Website be considered as constituting a definitive scientific truth; they merely represent the state of the art as appreciated by the specialists who have assisted in selecting and/or summarizing and/or compiling them.

4. CRITERIA FOR THE QUALITY OF THE INFORMATION PUT ONLINE

4.1 ITO abides by the "Health on the Net" criteria (http://www.hon.ch). ITO's Website is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Vifor (International) Inc., one of whose objectives is to support, develop and promote the medical community on the Web in terms of methods, research, techniques and therapeutic applications of its scientific knowledge about iron in human and animal health.

The ethical principles of Health on the Net, a non-profit Swiss foundation, are as follows:

• Any medical or health advice provided and hosted on this Website will only be given by medically trained and qualified professionals unless a clear statement is made that a piece of advice offered is from a non-medically qualified individual or organization.

• The information provided on this Website is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her existing physician.

• Confidentiality of data relating to individual patients and visitors to a medical/health Website, including their identity, is respected by this Website. The Website owners undertake to honor or exceed the legal requirements of medical/health information privacy that apply in the country and state where the Website and mirror sites are located.

• Where appropriate, information contained on this site will be supported by clear references to source data and, where possible, have specific HTML links to that data. The date when a clinical page was last modified will be clearly displayed (e.g. at the bottom of a page).

• The designers of this Website will seek to provide information in the clearest possible manner and provide contact addresses for visitors that seek further information or support. The Webmaster will display his/her e-mail address clearly throughout the Website.

• Any claims relating to the benefits/performance of a specific treatment, commercial product or service will be supported by appropriate, balanced evidence in the manner outlined above in Principle 4.

• Support for this Website will be clearly identified, including the identities of commercial and non-commercial organizations that have contributed funding, services or material for the site.

• If advertising is a source of funding it will be clearly stated. A brief description of the advertising policy adopted by the Website owners will be displayed on the site. Advertising and other promotional material will be presented to viewers in a manner and context that facilitates differentiation between it and the original material created by the institution operating the site.

4.2 ITO also abides by the main criteria of the French agency for the safety of health products (Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire des Produits de Santé - AFSSAPS) and the French national pharmaceutical industry syndicate (Syndicat National de l'Industrie Pharmaceutique - SNIP).

These criteria define a charter for communications from pharmaceutical companies to health professionals and the general public using the Web. ITO undertakes to abide by the following provisions of the charter:

• The provisions of the [French] Public Health Code on communications about medicines, restrictions on access concerning health professionals, the methods for depositing site pages with the AFSSAPS and applications for approval as appropriate and where ITO considers this to be desirable.

• The clear identification for the user of the promotional nature of the information.

• The criteria of objectivity and quality concerning the bibliographical databases that may be consulted on the Website.

• The data concerning the user, including the prohibition of profiling without the user's knowledge.

• The rules for correspondence concerning bibliographical requests or requests for medical documentation, the possibility of setting up hypertext links to summaries or reports of congresses put on the Website by press editors of congress sites, and circulated under their responsibility and that of their reading committee.

• The deadlines for updating information about medicines.

This charter [in French] may be consulted on the AFSSAPS' site at http://agmed.sante.gouv.fr

5. GENERAL INFORMATION ONLY

ITO has set up the present Website with a view to providing easy access to general information about iron therapy to physicians and other qualified medical professionals who agree to these Contract Conditions. The information contained on the Website is mainly of general interest; and does not constitute professional advice of a legal or medical nature, nor is the information supposed to take the place of such professional advice.

The site is therefore an ordinary database and a source of bibliographical or doctrinal references.

6. PASSWORDS

Provided that the registration information you provide about yourself is approved and certified by ITO, a password will be activated to you to permit you to use this Website. The password activated for you is for your use only and you are solely responsible for the safekeeping of your password. You are responsible if your password is lost, stolen or misused and you must notify us immediately if any of these events happen. You will be responsible for all activity attributable to your password.

7. INTERACTIVE AREAS

You may be permitted to access and use forum areas, chat rooms, bulletin boards, mail lists, and other forms of group electronic communications through this Website ("Interactive Areas"). If you participate in Interactive Areas you are responsible for your own communications and the consequences of posting your communications. If you choose to post material using such Interactive Areas, you agree to do so solely for lawful purposes.

You expressly agree that you will not post any material that: (1) is defamatory, libellous, abusive, or obscene, including, without limitation, material which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, federal, national or international law in all applicable countries, jurisdictions and localities; (2) infringes on the copyright or any other proprietary right of a third-party; (3) would violate any confidentiality obligations you may have or otherwise invade the privacy of any other person; (4) is intended to advertise to or solicit others without our express permission; (5) constitute charity solicitations, chain letters or pyramid schemes; (6) contains a virus, worm, trojan horse, time bomb, or any other harmful program or component; or (7) does not generally pertain to the designated topic or theme of this Website.

You also expressly agree that you will not: (a) after receiving warning, continue to post material which we have advised you not to post; (b) create a false identity or forged e-mail address or header, or otherwise attempt to mislead others as to the identity of the sender or the origin of the message; (c) post, generate or disseminate so-called "spam" or mass-mailings; (d) harvest or otherwise collect information about others, including e-mail addresses, without their consent; (e) interfere with or disrupt networks connected to this Website, or used for purposes of delivering the Content; (f) attempt to gain unauthorized access to restricted areas of this Website, other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to this Website, through password mining or any other means; or (g) interfere with another of our user's use and enjoyment of this Website. We do not, and are not responsible for, screening or monitoring material posted by you or any other person or entity in Interactive Areas. If notified by one of our users of any material that is alleged not to conform to the terms of these Contract Conditions, we may investigate the allegation and determine in our sole discretion to remove or request the removal of the material. We reserve the right to remove material, which is abusive, illegal, disruptive, or that otherwise fails to conform to these Contract Conditions. We reserve the right to edit or delete any material posted on this Website, regardless of whether such material violates these standards for content. We have no liability or responsibility to you or any other person or entity for performance or nonperformance of the screening activities set forth above.

We further do not represent, warrant or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any of the material posted in Interactive Areas. We also do not endorse any opinions expressed in Interactive Areas. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT ANY RELIANCE ON CONTENT POSTED IN INTERACTIVE AREAS IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT ANY INFORMATION TRANSMITTED VIA THE INTERACTIVE AREAS REPRESENTS THE PERSONAL OPINION OF THE INDIVIDUAL OFFERING SUCH INFORMATION. YOU ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT NEITHER ITO NOR ANY THIRD PARTY WORKING WITH ITO IN CONNECTION WITH THIS WEBSITE HAS AUTHENTICATED OR ENDORSED ANY INFORMATION TRANSMITTED VIA THE INTERACTIVE AREAS.

You hereby grant to us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual license, with right to sublicense, to reproduce, distribute, transmit, create derivative works of, publicly display and publicly perform any materials and other information you submit to the Interactive Areas by all means and in any media now known or hereafter developed for any use or purpose.

8. PATIENT DATA AND LEGAL COMPLIANCE

The Website may enable users to transmit, store, and receive confidential patient information ("Patient Information"). State, Federal and other National laws in various countries, jurisdictions and localities, as well as ethical and licensure requirements of your profession may impose obligations with respect to patient confidentiality that may limit the ability of physicians, health care providers, and persons acting on their behalf, to make use of this Website to transmit certain information to third parties. You agree not to disclose any confidential Patient Information through this Website. You represent and warrant that you will, at all times in connection with your use of this Website, comply with all laws directly or indirectly applicable to you that may now or hereafter govern the gathering, use, transmission, processing, receipt, reporting, disclosure, maintenance, and storage of the Patient Information, and use your best efforts to cause all persons or entities under your direction or control to comply with such laws. You are, at all times in connection with your use of this Website, solely responsible for obtaining and maintaining all patient consents and all other legally necessary consents or permissions required or advisable to disclose, process, retrieve, transmit, and view the Patient Information or related information you may transmit, store, or receive in connection with this Website and you remain fully liable for any disclosures you may make. You agree that ITO, our licensors, and all other persons or entities involved in the operation of this Website, have the right to monitor, retrieve, store and use all information you may transmit in connection with the operation of this Website, and are acting on your behalf in transmitting such information. Since you have agreed not to transmit any Patient Information through this Website, we have no obligation to you or any third party with respect to any Patient Information or other information you may transmit through this Website. WE CANNOT AND DO NOT ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OR ANY THIRD PARTY'S USE OR MISUSE OF PATIENT INFORMATION OR OTHER INFORMATION TRANSMITTED, MONITORED, STORED OR RECEIVED USING THIS WEBSITE.

9. LINKS

The Website may contain links to other websites belonging to third parties ("Linked Sites"). These links are provided solely for your convenience and do not constitute a recommendation or promotion on the part of ITO of any website, or its content, belonging to a third party. ITO does not operate any website belonging to a third party, is not responsible for the content of such a site, and makes no statements, gives no guarantees and undertakes no commitments of any kind whatsoever concerning any third-party website, including, and without restricting the foregoing, (i) no statement, guarantee or commitment as to whether such a third-party website is lawful, correct, reliable, comprehensive, up to date or relevant, (ii) no statement, guarantee or commitment of any kind as to the quality and(or) suitability for a particular purpose of any third-party website or any documents, content, software, products or services located on these third-party websites or available through them, and (iii) no statement, guarantee or commitment of any kind indicating whether operation of these third-party websites is continuous and error-free, whether defects or errors on these third-party websites are corrected or that these third-party websites are free of viruses or any other harmful elements.

Although ITO encourages links to its Website, it does not wish to be linked to any third-party website that contains, displays or transmits any unlawful or indecent information of any kind whatsoever, including, and without restricting the foregoing, (i) any content representing or encouraging behaviour that would constitute a criminal offence, incur civil liability or otherwise violate any law or regulation, whether local, state, provincial, national or international in any applicable country, jurisdiction or locale, or that may be damaging or prejudicial to the activities, operation, credibility or integrity of ITO, or (ii) any website containing, displaying or transmitting any document or information of any kind whatsoever that violates or infringes the rights of others, including materially, constitutes an infringement of entitlement to privacy or of advertising rights, or again that which is protected by copyright, trade marks or other exclusive rights. ITO reserves the right to prohibit the establishment of a link, or to refuse to accept that a link be established, with its Website, more particularly, without restricting the foregoing, a link that includes or makes available any content or information of the kind referred to above, at any given time.

10. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

THE CONTENT AND OTHER INFORMATION PROVIDED ON OR THROUGH THIS WEBSITE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. YOUR USE OF THIS WEBSITE OR ANY LINKED SITE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. ALTHOUGH THE INFORMATION ON THIS SITE IS OBTAINED OR COMPILED FROM SOURCES ITO BELIEVES TO BE RELIABLE, ITO CANNOT AND DOES NOT GUARANTEE OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE ACCURACY, VALIDITY, SEQUENCE, TIMELINESS, COMPLETENESS OR CONTINUED AVAILABILITY OF ANY INFORMATION OR CONTENT, INCLUDING THIRD-PARTY CONTENT, MADE AVAILABLE ON THIS SITE OR ON ANY LINKED SITE.

BY USING THIS WEBSITE, YOU AGREE AND UNDERSTAND THAT THE WEBSITE MAY CONTAIN VIRUSES OR OTHER DAMAGING ELEMENTS, AND THAT COMMUNICATIONS TO OR FROM THE WEBSITE, INCLUDING ENCRYPTED COMMUNICATIONS THROUGH THE WEBSITE'S FORUM OR OTHER MESSAGE AREAS AND INTERACTIVE AREAS, ARE NOT SECURE AND MAY BE INTERCEPTED.

IN NO EVENT SHALL ITO BE LIABLE FOR ANY DECISION MADE OR ACTION OR INACTION TAKEN BY YOU IN RELIANCE ON ANY CONTENT, INFORMATION OR DATA, INCLUDING THIRD-PARTY CONTENT, ON THIS SITE OR ON ANY LINKED SITE.

ITO FURTHER EXPLICITLY DISCLAIMS, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

ITO, ITS MEMBERS, AFFILIATES ORGANIZERS, BENEFICIARIES, SUCCESSORS, SUPPLIERS OF THIRD-PARTY CONTENT AND ANY OTHER THIRD PARTY WORKING WITH ITO SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, FOR ANY DAMAGES OR LOSS (INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL AND ANY AND ALL OTHER FORMS OF DAMAGES OR LOSSES REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION OR THE BASIS OF THE CLAIM) CAUSED OR ALLEGED TO BE CAUSED IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THIS WEBSITE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR DEVISING, MONITORING OR ADMINISTERING TREATMENT OR APPLYING AN OPERATING PROTOCOL, OR IN MAKING A DIAGNOSIS AND DEVISING A CARE STRATEGY OR DECISION, WHETHER OR NOT FORESEEABLE, EVEN IF ITO OR ANY OF ITS MEMBERS, AFFILIATES ORGANIZERS, BENEFICIARIES, SUCCESSORS, SUPPLIERS OF THIRD-PARTY CONTENT OR OTHER THIRD PARTIES WORKING WITH ITO IN CONNECTION WITH THIS WEBSITE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OR LIKELIHOOD OF SUCH DAMAGES.

IF, NOTWITHSTANDING THE OTHER TERMS OF THESE CONTRACT CONDITIONS, ITO OR ITS MEMBERS, AFFILIATES ORGANIZERS, BENEFICIARIES, SUCCESSORS, SUPPLIERS OF THIRD-PARTY CONTENT OR ANY OTHER THIRD PARTY WORKING WITH ITO SHOULD HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY LOSS, HARM OR DAMAGE, YOU AGREE THAT, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWABLE UNDER LAW, SUCH LIABILITY SHALL UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES EXCEED US$100. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY IS AN AGREED ALLOCATION OF RISK BETWEEN AND REFLECTS THE FACT THAT ACCESS TO THIS WEBSITE IS FREE. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT ABSENT YOUR AGREEMENT TO THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY, WE WOULD NOT PROVIDE ACCESS TO THIS WEBSITE TO YOU.

11. INDEMNITY

YOU AGREE TO DEFEND, INDEMNIFY AND HOLD ITO, ITS MEMBERS, AFFILIATES ORGANIZERS, BENEFICIARIES, SUCCESSORS, SUPPLIERS OF THIRD-PARTY CONTENT AND ANY OTHER THIRD PARTY WORKING WITH ITO, HARMLESS AGAINST ANY LOSSES, EXPENSES, COSTS OR DAMAGES (INCLUDING OUR REASONABLE ATTORNEYS' FEES, EXPERT FEES' AND OTHER REASONABLE COSTS OF LITIGATION) ARISING FROM, INCURRED AS A RESULT OF, OR IN ANY MANNER RELATED TO (1) YOUR BREACH OF THE CONTRACT CONDITION, (2) YOUR UNAUTHORIZED OR UNLAWFUL USE OF THIS WEBSITE, AND (3) THE UNAUTHORIZED OR UNLAWFUL USE OF THE SITE BY ANY OTHER PERSON USING YOUR IDS.

12. USE OF THE WEBSITE

ITO allows you to consult and use the Website for your personal, non-commercial use in accordance with the methods and conditions set out in these Contract Conditions.

13. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The Website and the Content are protected by legislation on copyright and intellectual property; they belong to ITO and to its licensors, or to the accredited party in its capacity as supplier of the Content. The Content may not be reproduced, represented, adapted, translated, amended, transmitted, published, circulated, re-published or any other use made of the Website or its Content, whether in full or in part, without ITO giving specific consent in writing in advance, except for the entitlement to access specifically authorized to members of the site.

14. LIMITED RIGHT OF ACCESS

Subject to the methods set out in the present Contract Conditions, a limited right of access that is individual and strictly personal, non-transferable and non-exclusive allowing access to the Website and to its Content, to view and consult the same, and to use the same for strictly personal and non-commercial purposes is granted to members whose registration is accepted. Such registration is subject to ITO's decision; ITO shall remain free to refuse a registration without having to give any reasons and may not be blamed in any way, either privately or judicially. Registration as a member authorizes members to download, store and/or print single copies of articles included in the Content for their personal, non-commercial use, on condition that they retain all the notices concerning copyright and other notices shown in the Content. Such storage and printing may be subject to any other additional demand governing the use of any specific content appearing on the Website and membership, which the member accepts in advance.

15. CORRESPONDENCE FROM REGISTERED MEMBERS

Those members who wish to communicate with ITO are asked to do so by telephone, fax or post. ITO will not reply to any unencrypted e-mails from members seeking to obtain advice or help of a medical or legal nature. ITO cannot guarantee the confidentiality of the information contained in any encrypted or unencrypted communications. No special relationship or specific obligation shall be created as a result of your use of this Website or any communications through this Website or otherwise with ITO. Under no circumstances will any reply be sent to requests or communications requesting advice or help of a medical or legal nature; they will be promptly deleted.

ITO therefore reserves the freedom to sanction any failure to abide by the elementary rules of behaviour and/or violation of netiquette or the present stipulations, by excluding any dishonest or imprudent member, impostor or member whose behaviour does not meet the required standard, without notice and with no compensation or refund.

16. TRADE MARKS

ITO, MedEd GS and VIFOR International are trademarks. The other names, words, titles, phrases, logos, drawings, charts, icons and trade marks posted on the Website may constitute the trade marks, which may or may not be registered, of ITO or third parties. Although certain third-party trademarks and/or logos may be used by ITO under a license agreement, the use of third-party trademarks on the Website should not be taken to indicate the existence of any relationship or license between ITO and the owner of these trademarks, nor to suppose that ITO recommends or promotes the goods, services or the company of the owner of the said trade marks.

17. MODIFICATION OF THE WEBSITE

The Website may be modified, interrupted or rendered unavailable at any time without notice, either temporarily or permanently. ITO's liability cannot be incurred as a result of such occurrences.

18. DIVISIBILITY

Should any provision or undertaking in the present Contract be invalid or inapplicable, the validity or applicability of any other provision or commitment contained in the present document would not be affected; all the invalid provisions or commitments would be deemed divisible from the remainder of the present Contract.

19. APPLICABLE LAW AND JURISDICTIONAL COMPETENCE

Use of the Website is subject to French law and the exclusive jurisdiction of the Commercial Court of Paris.

You acknowledge and accept that you access the Website and its Content and use the same entirely at your own risk and you assume full responsibility therefore. ITO may at any time and without notice, at its discretion, cancel or revoke your entitlement to use the Website or any part thereof. In the event of such cancellation or revocation, you would cease to be authorized to either access or use the Website or the part of the Website affected by such cancellation or revocation. The restrictions imposed on you in respect of any document downloaded from the Website and the notices of non-acceptance of liability, and the limitation of liability provided for in the present Contract, would continue to obtain if the present Contract were to be cancelled or revoked for any reason whatsoever. ITO would bear no liability towards you or any other party in respect of such cancellation or revocation.

Questions and comments about the Website sent by the media or that concern information of a general nature may be sent by e-mail
to : admin@irontherapy.org.