Big pharma's rights take precedence over patient rights
posted Wed, 29 Jun 2011The Supreme Court decided last week that corporations’ First Amendment rights take precedence over the privacy rights of consumers.
The case was Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., and the decision means that pharmaceutical companies will continue to have access to prescription data, which allows pharmaceutical representatives to carefully target their drug marketing efforts to doctors. We’ve blogged about this in more detail before.
This decision is a big victory for pharmaceutical companies, as this type of aggressive marketing helps bring in hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Patients, on the other hand, lose in a big way due to such a precedent. The obvious blow to patient privacy is one thing, but it’s also important to note that drug reps are promoting the newest—and most expensive—drugs. In doing so, they disregard patient health and they drive up drug prices.
We’re not the only ones upset by this outcome. Merrill Goozner has a thoughtful blog post on the topic. Here's a CNN story on it as well.