Over-the-counter sales of medical records.(Prescription for Change)

Women's Health Activist, May, 2007 by Fugh-Berman, Adriane

In all likelihood, every time you fill a prescription, information about you is sold to a company that then resells that information to pharmaceutical companies for promotional purposes. Pharmaceutical companies may know that you used Seasonale for six months last year, then switched to a generic birth control pill; that you took the antibiotic Zithromax in September and Ketec in December: that you use a nasal steroid during the spring pollen season every year; and that you filled one prescription for Prozac last month but haven't picked up a refill.

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