Parties mull options after Rx privacy law struck

In a split decision, a federal appeals court in New York has overturned a Vermont law seeking to restrict the use of prescription drug data in the marketing of pharmaceuticals to physicians.

The ruling by a majority of the three-judge panel in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came in favor of the appellants—IMS Health; Verispan; Source Healthcare Analytics, a subsidiary of Wolters Kluwer Health; and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America -- and found that the 2007 Vermont law constituted "an impermissible restriction of commercial speech." The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston found in favor of similar state laws in Maine and New Hampshire. An appeal to the Supreme Court may not be the next step, according to Vermont Assistant Attorney General Bridget Asay, but it is one possibility.