States fight to shield docs from drug data mining

After all, how much could the scrawled handwriting on that tiny slip be worth?

Not much to the average consumer--but to the world's largest drugmakers, the information is an invaluable sales tool that they use to track what drugs individual doctors are prescribing all across the country.

Companies like IMS Health Inc. have built an industry around gathering prescription data and selling the information to pharmaceutical companies for millions of dollars each year. Pfizer Inc., Merck & Co. Inc. and nearly every other drugmaker uses the data to identify which doctors are prescribing their drugs and which are prescribing the competition. When freebie-wielding salespeople show up at their offices, most doctors don't know they're being targeted based on their own prescribing habits.

But the political tide may be turning against IMS Health and competitors like Verispan, a unit of Surveillance Data Inc. After years of steady growth, they are fighting against laws in three New England states to keep prescribing information out of their hands.

Judges in Maine and New Hampshire have handed the companies early victories, declaring laws aimed at stopping the commercial use of prescription data unconstitutional. But an impending decision by a federal appeals court could overturn those actions and open the door to more restrictions nationwide.

As many as 18 states considered data restrictions this year, though analysts said they held off to see if New Hampshire's law survives legal scrutiny.

The challenges to so-called data-mining companies are part of a larger backlash against pharmaceutical marketing efforts, which involve courting doctors with gifts, meals and other perks.

State advocates say the sales push drives up the cost of health care by convincing doctors to prescribe the latest, most expensive medications--instead of cheaper, sometimes better, options.

"Obviously these companies want doctors to prescribe the medicines they're marketing," said New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Laura Lombardi. "We want doctors to make their decisions based solely on their best medical judgment, rather than the best interests of pharmaceutical manufacturers."