My lede:

A federal court in April upheld a 2007 Vermont law that lets physicians choose whether to allow their prescribing data to be sold for use in pharmaceutical marketing.

The decision came on the heels of a November 2008 court ruling that upheld New Hampshire’s ban on selling prescribers’ information for commercial uses. This reversed a district court ruling that the ban violated First Amendment protections for commercial speech.

The whole shebang.

My co-author’s lede:

In recent months, medical schools, the drug industry and Congress have sought to crack down on perceived conflicts of interest between physicians and drug companies. Now the Institute of Medicine has joined the calls for change.

The IOM issued a report April 28 warning that such conflicts could undermine the integrity of medicine, and the agency wants everyone involved in physician-drug industry relationships to rethink how they do business. The new approaches should be crafted with full disclosure at their core, the report said.

The whole shebang.