Germany's health minister has called for legal intervention in the prescription-data scandal that has followed a report in German news magazine Der Spiegel claiming that prescription-data processing centres pass on insufficiently encrypted data to market research companies.
IHS Global Insight perspective | |
Significance | German health minister Daniel Bahr has called for legal intervention in the prescription-data scandal that has erupted in Germany over recent days, following the publication of an article in Der Spiegel claiming that prescription-data processing centres have been passing on insufficiently encrypted data to market research companies, which enables them to gain access to patients' personal data. The scandal has even spread to neighbouring Austria. |
Implications | Der Spiegel reported on similar claims in 2012, and is touting this as a major data-protection scandal; meanwhile, market research group IMS Health has denied all accusations, as has the prescription-data processing centre mentioned in the article. |
Outlook | In the context of a number of major corruption scandals in the German public healthcare sector relating specifically to the pharmaceutical industry, this case serves to increase negative publicity about the industry in Germany. It is also hard to predict the outcome of any legal investigation, with so many claims and counter claims; however, it would certainly represent a major scandal if the accusations were to be verified as accurate. |
Health minister calls for legal intervention in prescription data scandal
Germany's health minister Daniel Bahr has called for the intervention of the appropriate legal authorities to assess accusations made in a recent report in major German news source Der Spiegel regarding the alleged trade in insufficiently encrypted data by prescription data centres. Bahr has proposed that the German Public Prosecutor's Office investigate the claims, reports Pharmazeutische Zeitung.
Der Spiegel publishes claims of breaches of prescription-data privacy
Der Spiegel published a leading article several days ago in which it accused the prescription data processing centre in southern Germany – the Munich-based VSA – of selling insufficiently encrypted prescription data to market research companies. Among the companies involved is IMS Health, according to the source reports. Der Spiegel claims to have seen material presented by IMS Health to French pharmaceutical major Sanofi dating from April 2012, in which IMS offers to sell information on insulin prescriptions including patient-specific information, with 12-monthly updates, for EUR86,400 (USD115,577).
Accusations refuted by IMS and VSA
IMS Health has denied the accusations made by Der Spiegel, stating, as reported in Apotheke Adhoc, that it does not receive any data from pharmacies that include personal information about patients. Additionally, the source reports that the Bavarian data protection authority had examined the process by which the VSA transforms prescription data in order to render it anonymous so that it can be sold on to market-research organisations, and the process was found to be compliant with all legal requirements. Indeed, the head of the Bavarian data protection authority, Thomas Kranig, has reacted angrily to the accusations, which were originally made by his counterpart in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Thilo Weichert, who has talked of this being potentially "one of the largest data scandals in the post-war period".
Der Spiegel reports that it received confidential documents showing that in the prescription data delivered to IMS Health, patients' identities are concealed only by a 64-digit code, which it reports is "easy" to trace back to the individual patient's insurance number. Der Spiegel states that the kind of data it claims IMS Health has access to can be extremely useful for pharmaceutical companies, as it ostensibly enables them to monitor the prescribing habits of specific doctors and to assess the effectiveness of their pharmaceutical representatives.
Previous claims of prescription-data security breaches in 2012
Additionally, Der Spiegel comments that it had already reported on the supposed sale of prescription data in 2012, when a former employee of a prescription data processing centre at Karlsfeld near Munich – the GFD – told the news source that a number of prescription data processing centres were involved in such practices, and that the pharmaceutical industry was the ultimate beneficiary of this process.
Scandal spreads to Austria
The scandal has now broken in neighbouring Austria as well. As Austrian newspaper Der Standard reports, a spokeswoman from IMS Health appeared on Austrian public television channel Ö1 and confirmed that doctors in Austria sell data on prescriptions to IMS, with around 350 doctors involved. The spokeswoman is reported to have emphasised that the prescription data is encrypted by a third-party company before IMS receives it, and although it is broken down by age and gender, there is no way that any data can be traced back to individual patients. The Austrian Medical Chamber and the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists have condemned any unlawful trading of personal data and have distanced themselves from these practices. The head of the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists, Max Wellan, has said that IMS Health only receives product-specific sales figures from individual pharmacies, and these data do not even reveal the number of customers, or any other personal data about customers.
Consultation process launched in Nordrhein-Westphalia
Meanwhile, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the data protection authority has launched a consultation process regarding data processing centre ARZ Haan, with suspicions that the prescription data handled by the centre were not rendered sufficiently anonymous when forwarded to market research agencies, reports Pharmazeutische Zeitung. Linda Paul, spokesperson for ARZ Haan, has said that the centre is confident its encryption process is adequately secure. The data protection authority of the state is due to give its opinion by 6 September.
Outlook and implications
At this stage, the accusations remain unsubstantiated, and with IMS Health and the VSA denying any breach of legal regulations, a proper legal investigation will be required in order to establish whether there has been any specific wrongdoing. The sale of prescription data is not illegal as long as the data are sufficiently anonymous and so cannot be traced to individual patients. Indeed, the collection and analysis of prescription data along therapeutic and other lines is an important part of understanding the pharmaceutical market and planning for adequate provision of medicines in the public healthcare sector. There is obviously potential for abuse in this field, and there would certainly be important ramifications if an investigation were to uncover any such breaches.
In the context of a number of corruption scandals in Germany involving various groups in the pharmaceutical industry, this new scandal adds weight to the current anti-pharma sentiment in the country (see Germany: 13 December 2012: German MoH reels at reports of infiltration by pharma industry "mole" and Germany: 5 April 2013: German health minister puts forward proposals for legislative changes against corrupt doctors). It remains to be seen whether any inappropriate use of prescription data will be proven; until then, it can be expected that the German and Austrian media will continue to be full of new accusations and counter-accusations relating to the as-yet unsubstantiated claims of misuse of information from prescription-data processing.