Big Pharma wins privacy battle

Big Pharma’s “rights” trump yours

Which is more important: your privacy, or a drug company’s marketing efforts?

If you ask me…surely you already know my answer–I don’t give a fig about some drug company’s ability to put on a crackerjack marketing campaign. Obviously, patient privacy is at the top of the list.

But if you ask the Supreme Court…well, let’s just say they don’t share my sensible point of view.

Back in 2007, the state of Vermont said “no more” to data mining of prescription drug records (including information on how frequently particular drugs are prescribed and the like) for marketing purposes, including marketing to individual doctors. Thanks for taking a stand, Vermont!

Flash forward to 2011, and the Supreme Court is putting an end to such people-first nonsense. They ruled that Vermont’s law interferes with the right to free speech. Yep, the illustrious Court stepped up to protect those poor Big Pharma underdogs–and thank goodness for that. I mean, they’re just trying to make their billions in peace, right?

Speaking for the majority, Justice Kennedy had these wise words:

“Speech in aid of pharmaceutical marketing… is a form of expression protected by the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment… As a consequence, Vermont’s statute must be subjected to heightened judicial scrutiny. The law cannot satisfy that standard.”

Did I say “wise”? I meant “ridiculous.”

Now that corporations are people and therefore are granted such rights as free speech, they apparently have free reign over data that for each prescription includes the doctor’s name and address; the name, dosage, and quantity of the drug; the date and place where the prescription was filled, and the patient’s age and gender.”

I don’t know about you, but thinking about Big Pharma having such free reign over this pretty specific information makes me a little queasy.

I mean, there are good applications for such data–like tracking progression of disease and other things that actually help public health. But when it comes to helping Big Pharma sell more pills by being able to, for example, target individual doctors–yes, including YOUR doctor–well, I’m sorry, but your “free speech” argument just isn’t going to cut it.

Sources:
“Court Strikes Down Limits on Data Mining of Drug Records,” The Wall Street Journal (online.wsj.com)