It’s important to read between the line – Recent Pharma Industy Activity

The Vermont state legislature passed a bill effective 1 July 2009 restricting “all use of prescriber data for marketing purposes to pharmaceutical data mining companies.”[i]  During the last week of June, an attorney representing IMS Health, Verispan, and Source Healthcare — prescription data-mining firms requesting the Court to block implementation of the new law.

Mr. Jullin, attorney for the three firms, presenting his argument, did so on the heels of several industry pharmaceutical companies agreeing to help support the cost of healthcare reform.  Concurrent with these actions, Congress and most of the American public was engaging in the pros and cons of reform.

Three independent actions, all rational cases for support, and occurring within days, hours, minutes of one another, apparently incongruent yet fundamentally aligned.

The pharma data mining firms position is that the Vermont law is misinterpret ting the real use of data.  Firms mining information, personal information, about you and me is actually noncommercial speech therefore falling under the protective cover of the First Amendment. The Vermont Assistant Attorney General’s position, as if you did not guess, is that First Amendment rights are not the issue – the purpose and objective of data-mining is in support of marketing tools.   He noted in his remarks the Vermont Prescription Confidentiality Law “regulates commercial marketing of health data to promote public health, medical privacy and to contain health care costs…(and, research conducted by Vermont government staff found) data marketed by the companies led to higher health care costs and contributed to inappropriate prescribing decisions.” The position concluded with an admission that Vermont could not determine if implementation would reduce health care costs or not.

Recently a similar statute in New Hampshire was questioned resulting in an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on similar groups – first Amendment.  New Hampshire’s law restricted data-mining firm activity as well.  The statute prohibited collection of prescription data for any and all purposes related to increased sales of pharmaceuticals.  Concurrently the law focuses on physicians in the hope that decreasing direct marketing to physicians will alter their scripting activity away from costly medications.

These two cases along with the other pharma industry actions during the past few months paint a picture of an industry in flux.  The first key learning in any business class is that the objective of a business is to insure a profit for its stockholder(s) or owner(s).  The rule doesn’t lose definition when discussing not-for-profits; in their case the profit is for reinvestment in mission driven endeavors.  The pharma industry, like counterparts in the healthcare sector, is driven to create profit for stockholders.  Engaging in financial support of reform is noble and an act to be lauded; not to be confused with corporate mission.  Business 101 offers insight; Strategy 101 teaches how to ferret out the central message.  Utilizing technology to create better marketing strategies is strategic activity supporting measureable objectives and goals in a linear relationship.  Financial support of the healthcare reform bill in the nation is an action supporting public relations and/or brand management strategies. 

Strategy 201 reminds you that a corporate mission should last one hundred years; offering a purposeful statement of what the business unit is.  A corporate vision has a contracted lifespan and provides the challenge to be attained.  Strategies and subsequent actions are the most short-lived and provide tactical responses. 

Stewardship of the community is a lofty endeavor best saved for civic, cultural, and religious sectors.  Profit making endeavors are most often successful when led by the corporate community.  Each utilizes messaging to their own advantage leaving you and me to decode the message and make our own decisions.  Healthcare reform is laden with messaging and unique codes.  Hopefully at the end of the day when a bill is presented those voting will not simply say that, “It’s all Greek to me!”