WASHINGTON — States cannot stop drug manufacturers and data-mining companies from using information about the prescription drugs individual doctors like to prescribe, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The court voted 6-3 to strike down a Vermont data-mining law aimed at controlling health care costs by boosting the use of generic drugs. The ruling imperils similar laws in Maine and New Hampshire that seek to control the flow of information about brand-name medications.
The information is extremely valuable to brand-name drugmakers, which spend a reported $8 billion a year marketing their products to doctors. Among those efforts is the practice of detailing, in which sales representatives tailor their pitch to individual doctors based on the doctors’ own prescribing habits.
Backers of the laws generally think drug prices are too high and one reason is the money drugmakers spend to market their products. The laws’ supporters say that by preventing the sale of the information, they help protect medical privacy, control health care costs by promoting generic drugs and improve public health.
Justice Anthony Kennedy said the Vermont law violates the speech rights of the data-mining and pharmaceutical companies. He said the state “cannot engage in content-based discrimination to advance its own side of a debate.” The Associated Press
