Briefs

Top court won't review prescription privacy law

Mon Jun 29, 2009 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear an appeal by two publishers of health-care information arguing that data mining for commercial purposes is protected by free-speech rights.

The high court refused to decide a challenge by IMS Health Inc and Verispan, a unit of SDI Health LLC, to a New Hampshire law that makes it a crime to use information about a doctor's prescribing history for the purpose of increasing drug sales.

The companies appealed after a U.S. appeals court last year upheld the law and rejected their argument that it unconstitutionally infringed on their free-speech rights.

New Hampshire became the first state to adopt such a law in 2006. Since then, Maine and Vermont have enacted similar laws, the companies said.

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