Briefs

By Stephanie Saul, The New York Times, MAY 4, 2006

Although virtually unknown to consumers, the information has long been considered the most potent weapon in pharmaceutical sales: computerized dossiers showing which physicians were prescribing what drugs.

Armed with such data, a drug sales representative can put pressure on a doctor to write more prescriptions for a name-brand medicine, or fewer orders for a competitor's drug.

But a rebellion is under way among some doctors, who consider the data-gathering an intrusion that feeds overzealous marketing among the estimated 90,000 drug company representatives in the United States.

Here is the rest of the story.