Earlier this year, Maine and Vermont enacted laws regulating the marketing use of prescriber-identifying data.  Vermont’s law creates an ‘opt in’ system for prescribers to waive confidentiality of their data for marketing purposes; the Maine law creates a state-run system through medical licensing boards for prescribers to ‘opt out’ of marketing use of their data.  Both of these laws have been attacked by the health information firm IMS, which is heavily engaged in data mining and has launched lawsuits against both states.  NLARx, in association with AARP and a number of other concerned groups, has filed an amicus brief to defend the Maine law, and will do so in support of the Vermont law as well.  A hearing on the Maine case will be in Federal District Court in Bangor during Thanksgiving week.

The most current public information available concerning the IMS v. Rowe court case (Maine) is available below. 

		IMS v. Rowe Complaint (178 KB PDF)
		IMS v. Rowe Defendant's Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction (379 KB PDF)
		IMS v. Rowe Memorandum of Law in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction (174 KB PDF)
		IMS v. Rowe: AARP, Community Catalyst, NLARx, Dr. Bethany Picker, and Dr. Dan Summers Amicus Brief in Support of Defendant (112 KB PDF)
		IMS v. Rowe Order on Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction (349 KB PDF)