Marketers Challenge State Patient Privacy Law

Did you know that your physician's prescribing patterns are an open book to the nation's drug companies? If most people knew, how do you think they'd feel?

New Hampshire earlier this year became the first state in the nation to prohibit drug marketers from gaining access to information about how doctors prescribe drugs. The law, backed by AARP, most public health officials and privacy rights activists, was designed to stop data mining companies from compiling that information and selling it to drug companies, who pass it along to their door-to-door salesmen (known as detailers in the trade).

Now, two of those companies, IMS Health and Verispan, have asked a federal court to declare the law an unconstitutional abridgment of freedom of speech. The lawsuit also claims restricting access to that data will impede research. According to the online news site, FDA Webview (subscription required), the law allows the release of aggregate prescriber data and does not prohibit information from being used for care management, clinical trials, and education.

IMS Health and Verispan earn their livings by selling data to the drug industry's marketing arms. But when someone passes a law to protect patient privacy, they pull out the research card. I've yet to see a clinical trial report that breaks down data by the sites where that data was collected, much less by the physicians who participated in the trial. Who are they trying to kid with this lawsuit?