IT: IMS Health buys PharMetrics

IMS Health announced this week that it is buying PharMetrics of Watertown, Massachusetts, for an undisclosed sum. PharMetrics has a database which links patient claims data to prescription claims data. That information is used by insurers to monitor disease management programs and by drug companies to help understand how effective their drug is in capturing "share of disease." IMS Health is the dominant franchise in pharma information and maintains a data set of all physicians prescribing habits that is used by drug companies to target their marketing efforts and reward their sales forces.

- see this story from the Associated Press