Do you take a prescription drug? Then Big Pharma is watching yo

Do you take a prescription drug? Then Big Pharma is watching you

Mining is now legal again in Vermont.

Data mining, that is.

In data mining, market researchers collect and sell information about consumers’ buying habits. Vermont is–or rather, WAS–one of the few states that protects citizens’ privacy with a law restricting data mining concerning patients’ prescription drug use.

You might think that a law like that wouldn’t be necessary, right? After all, your drug use is your business. You, your doctor, and your pharmacist are the only ones who need to know details about your prescriptions.

But last month, lawyers for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and three healthcare research firms argued that Vermont’s law was unconstitutional and put an “impermissible restriction on commercial speech.”

And a federal appeals court said, “Sounds about right to us!” And the law was struck down.

A senior VP of one of the research firms told Pharmalot, “Patients will benefit from a more transparent, safer and more competitive healthcare system as a result of this ruling.”

Let me translate that for you: “We will be able to target potential customers better based on what we know about their own drug use, so we’ll save money trying to convince them to buy our stuff. Ka-ching!!!”

So privacy is out the window and the “free speech” of marketing firms that want to use personal prescription information to help peddle more drugs is upheld.

That leaves Maine and New Hampshire as the only states that have these protective laws on the books. If you live anywhere else in the U.S., your prescription drug records are fair game for drug industry marketers.

Forget Big Brother. Big Pharma is watching you–closely.