Prescription Drug Data Mining

Most of all may be well aware that some companies collect data from pharmacies on physician’s prescribing patterns and later sell it off for marketing purposes.


According to a Reuters report, Senator Herb Kohl had sponsored an amendment to the Senate’ health reform bill to ban such prescription drug data mining. But it’s unlikely the amendment will stay as the bill comes up for a vote.


Companies like IMS Health and McKesson Corp’s Verispan that sell drug data as well as the American Medical Association (AMA) have been alarmed by the amendment. IMS saw the price of its stock shares fall before the amendment was pulled.


Data mining physicians’ prescribing data is a flourishing business as pharmaceutical companies purchase the data for marketing purposes. According to data mining advocates, the practice furthers research and helps monitor safety.