Health Data Firms Take Battle to Highest Court

IMS Health and SDI have petitioned the US Supreme Court to review a Court of Appeals ruling which would prevent them from using prescriber-identifiable data.

The sequence began with a New Hampshire law restricting the commercial use of such data. A District Court then ruled that such restrictions were in violation of the First Amendment's protection of commercial speech; but the Court of Appeals in turn decided, in the case of IMS Health vs. Ayotte that the First Amendment afforded no such protection to the gathering, analysis or publication of data for commercial purposes, and therefore the new Hampshire law did not curtail free speech.

The latest petition is a writ of certiorari, which asks the Supreme Court to review the lower court's opinion, and calls the Court of Appeals' decision 'a threat to the most basic constitutional right of free speech', creating 'a serious barrier to transfers of information - the core of the nation's emerging knowledge-based economy'.

Two other states, Maine and Vermont, have passed laws similar to that in New Hampshire: in the former the law is currently declared unconstitutional by the District Court, while a decision on the latter is pending after its own District Court case.

IMS SVP and General Counsel Robert H. Steinfeld comments: 'The Court of Appeals violated basic constitutional principles when it allowed the government to adopt barriers to truthful discussions about important medical questions. This decision jeopardizes both speech and commerce... Recognizing that the Court of Appeals' decision is in conflict with rulings of other courts, we are hopeful that the Justices will bring much needed clarity to these important issues.'

The Supreme Court is expected to decide whether to take the case before its summer recess in July.

The petition is online at www.imshealth.com/scpetition and more information at www.imsfreespeech.org . IMS Health is the biggest provider of pharmaceutical and healthcare market intelligence with $2.3 billion in 2008 revenue. SDI acquired Verispan on July 29th, 2008 and is focused on the provision of de-identified patient-level data analytics - web site www.sdihealth.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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