Vermont Prescription Privacy Law Overturned by Supreme Court

Under the recently overturned Vermont Prescription Confidentiality Law, pharmacies cannot sell prescription records that identify patients to pharmaceutical companies or for any marketing purpose without the consent of the doctors involved. Essentially, the law allowed for the protection of patients’ right to privacy. This law was struck down by a Supreme Court ruling with a 6-3 vote which deemed the law unconstitutional as it hindered the free speech of marketers and data miners.

The majority Justices in the vote had argued that speech in support of marketing of pharmaceutical products is protected by the First Amendment, specifically the Free Speech Clause, and thus the Vermont Prescription Confidentiality Law was not sufficiently justified.

But according to the minority Justices, the law affects expression in only one manner in that it prevents pharmaceutical companies and data miners from gathering information which was in conformity with the government’s mandate to allow pharmaceutical companies to come up with more useful advertising and product messages. They argued that the law’s effect on expression was directly associated with a legal effort by government to regulate a commercial enterprise.

The arguments against the law were criticized by privacy supporters, saying they sided with corporations and didn’t consider the rights of patients.

Pharmaceutical companies producing generic-labeled drugs had scored another win in a legal case regarding updates to information on labels. The ruling practically releases them from being accountable in case a patient suffers from undesirable drug effects without being sufficiently warned on the label.

Monica Risam Nicklin