IMS Health and SDI Health have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review lower court decisions on whether states may prohibit data mining — the collection and publication of prescribing trends, which drugmakers use to identify physicians who treat particular conditions for marketing purposes. Many doctors object to the tracking of their history of dispensing prescriptions. Drug companies use that information to discuss the medical benefits of products with physicians. The same data can be used by drugmakers to track the competition.
