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NH ban on sale of prescribing data shot down in federal court

Pharma Compliance Alert, May 9, 2007

States considering legislation to bar the sale of prescribing information may hit some constitutional roadblocks. Last week, a U.S. federal judge ruled against New Hampshire, the first state to enact such a law, declaring that it violated the First Amendment by restricting commercial speech, reports The New York Times. The state's Attorney General is contemplating an appeal after a review of the decision.

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch signed the law in June 2006 in order to restrict pharmaceutical companies' access to information that identifies physicians and other prescribers. IMS Health vice president, Randolph Frankel, said in various media reports that the ruling "points to the fact that states have a variety of alternatives to manage quality and cost without impacting free speech." He added that "other states will look to this decision as a basis for framing where they go in terms of their own legislative activities."

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