Federal Court Upholds Law Aimed at Curbing Prescription 'Detailing'

Doctors who object to a pharmaceutical marketing practice known as "detailing" won a clear victory last week, when a federal appellate court upheld the constitutionality of a Maine law barring prescription drug information intermediaries from accessing information from physicians' prescription information.The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals last Wednesday dismissed a constitutional challenge to a statute designed to protect physicians from pharmaceutical companies' marketing efforts. The law protects the prescription information of physicians who opt into a confidentiality program. The ca...