Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11644

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Goldstein J.
Drug Info Co’s Sue to Block Rx Privacy Laws
The Wall Street Journal Health Blog 2007 Oct 3
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/10/03/drug-info-cos-sue-to-block-rx-privacy-laws/

Full text:

Three companies that sell data that allow drug makers to track the prescriptions written by individual doctors are suing to block state laws in Vermont and Maine that would curtail the practice.

IMS Health, Wolters Kluwer Health, and Verispan said this morning that they’re asking for injunctions that would block the laws from taking effect next year. They’ve already filed suits to have the laws struck down (see this Health Blog post).

Advocates for the laws say they protect the privacy of doctors and place appropriate limits on marketing by the drug industry, which uses the information to inform sales reps calling on docs. Drug makers commonly use the data to calculate compensation for reps, too.

The companies won a similar case in New Hampshire earlier this year, when a federal judge ruled that a state law barring the sale of prescription data violated the First Amendment. That case is under appeal. Officials in Maine and Vermont have said they modified their laws based on the New Hampshire ruling to make them more likely to stand up in court.

The companies disagree. “The problem with the Maine and Vermont statutes is that they create an entirely new and unprecedented privacy right for physicians in their professional conduct,” an IMS VP said in today’s statement.