Prescription data miners seek VT injunction

A trio of companies engaged in the business of selling prescribing information to drugmakers--a practice referred to as "data mining" are asking an appeals court to stop an anti-data-mining law from being enforced. The data, which is physician-specific, has been a very lucrative commodity, so in states where anti-data-mining laws have sprung up vendors have fought back vigorously.

IMS Health, SDI Health and Wolters Kluwer Health had lost a skirmish in April, when a federal judge said the Vermont legislature was within its rights. But the three aren't giving up, and are asking a circuit court to stop the law from going into effect next month.

This is just one battle in a drawn-out war waged by data-mining interests against state restrictions, which have sprung up in states like Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. It's been years since Vermont legislature enacted a law banning the practice of collecting and analyzing prescribing data, then reselling it to pharmaceutical companies.

To learn more about the dispute:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece [1] (reg. req.)

Related Articles:
Federal appeals court upholds NH data mining ban [2]
DC considers pharma rep licenses, data mining limits [3]
VT wins battle to bar marketing use of Rx data [4]