FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 6, 2010
CONTACT:
Meredith Jacob
(202)274-4253
mjacob@wcl.american.edu
On
August 4, 2010 The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
upheld a Maine law allowing prescribers the choice to opt-out of the use
of their prescribing data for marketing purposes. The case, IMS Health Inc. v. Mills rejected
plaintiff-appellees argument that Me.Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 22, Section
1711 -E (2-A), was unconstitutional.
This is the second time the
First Circuit has upheld a law restricting the use of prescriber data,
following the earlier decision in IMS
v. Ayotte (2008).
Sharon Aglin Treat, the Executive
Director of National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices
applauded the decision. "This is good news for the state of Maine and
for anybody concerned about the use of private information to market
prescription drugs. We now have 3 different state laws restricting the
use of personal prescriber data that have been upheld by the federal
courts."
Meredith Jacob, a Pharmaceutical Policy Fellow at the
Washington College of Law, and counsel for NLARx, also supports the
decision "It
reinforces
the idea that states can act to protect their patients from invasive,
aggressive pharmaceutical marketing, and that that marketing is damaging
to patients because it distorts prescribing decisions, and increases
the cost of health care."
Maine
Public Broadcasting Network: Court Upholds Maine Law Restricting
Prescription Information
Opinion:
IMS Health Inc. v. Mills
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