Federal appeals court upholds NH data mining ban

Anne Zieger — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:14:33 -0500

The federal appeals court in Boston has dealt data mining companies like IMS Health and Verispan a huge blow by reinstating a New Hampshire law that bans the sale of doctor-specific prescription data.

The law, which was due to go into effect back in 2006, was successfully fought off at the time by the companies, who claimed that it infringed on their corporate free speech. However, the federal court ruled in favor of the law.

Vermont and Maine, in the same appellate district, have similar laws in the works that have faced legal challenges. This decision should open the door for those laws, and may also encourage other states to pass similar laws preventing the practice of selling the data.

The court said that the state had made a compelling case that barring such data mining would help reduce the cost of healthcare.

To learn more about the fight for drug privacy:
- read this New York Times piece

MA drops planned ban on physician gifts from drugmakers

Anne Zieger — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:30:55 -0400

Massachusetts legislators have stripped several controversial provisions out of pending legislation that would have imposed strict new rules on pharmaceutical company relationships with doctors. The bill had originally banned drug companies from providing gifts and meals to physicians, and also required drug and medical device companies to report payments they made to doctors for consulting and speaking about their products, but these provisions were removed. Legislators have also removed a proposed $5,000 per violation fine from the measure. The new version of the bill only requires drug companies to adopt a marketing code of conduct not unlike the one announced by drugmaker trade group PhRMA, which still allows companies to cater lunches and breakfasts in doctors' offices.

The proposed bill did keep one controversial section, however: It would ban pharmaceutical companies from buying drug prescribing information identifying doctors or patients. Such measures have been fought tooth and nail in other states by the pharmas--and overturned in some cases--so it's hard to imagine they'll let it stand here either. Still, even passing such a measure would be fairly progressive.

To learn more about this measure:
- read this piece from The Boston Globe

Related Articles:
WA attempts prescription data mining ban
DC considers pharma rep licenses, data mining limits