Baltimore Sun: Consumer advocates, states battle Rx data-mining

11/24/2009

The Baltimore Sun takes a look at one of the pharmaceutical industry's least-public and most-powerful marketing tactics: prescription data-mining, and what some states and consumer groups are doing to combat the practice.

Because drug sales reps know which drugs doctors prescribe, they can precisely tailor their pitches to maximize their chances of persuading them to switch products, Community Catalyst's Marcia Hams told the Sun.

"What they bring to the doctor will be selective information that will focus on their drug as a better choice," Hams said. "It really undermines the doctor-patient relationship because the rep is trying to influence the behavior of the physician."

A representative for the AMA denied that the association's sale of the nation's prescriber records was an influential part of the drug industry's marketing arsenal.  But the sale of the Physician Masterfile, which health information organizations pair with prescribing data and sell to pharmaceutical detailers, was worth $47.6 million to the AMA in 2008.

The association represents less than one-third of all U.S. physicians, though it sells all physicians' data. Many physicians say this has to change. "I shouldn't have my prescribing data used in this way," Minnesota internist Michael Mendoza told the Sun. Mendoza is a member of the National Physicians Alliance.