Should Pharma have access to doctors' prescription records?

Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont want to pass laws to prevent pharmacies from selling prescription data to drug companies, who in turn use it for "targeted marketing to doctors" or "tailoring their products to better meet the needs of health practitioners" (depending on who you talk to).This gets at the heart of the issue of imbalance between private and public sectors when it comes to access to sensitive information.From our perspective, it doesn't seem like a good idea to limit data usage. If the drug companies are smart, they're also using the same data to figure out things like what drugs are being prescribed in combination and how that affects the effectiveness of their products.Instead, we should be thinking of ways to expand access so that for every drug company buying data for marketing and product development, there is an active community of researchers, public advocates and policymakers who have low-cost or free access to the same data.