Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is suing the Texas Health and Human Services Commission over allegations that it turned over Medicaid prescription data that was proprietary.
The Texas Standard has a nice summation of the whole mess, which started when the head of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, state Sen. Charles Schwertner, a Republican of Georgetown, requested the state’s health commission to give legislators Medicaid prescription usage. The commission balked, saying the information was proprietary, and turned to the Texas Attorney General for a ruling. The AG ruled in favor of the lawmakers, and the commission turned over the data.
As The Standard reports, Pfizer has now sued the AG’s office for forcing the commission to turn over proprietary company data. The stakes, according to the report:
“If a court does rule in favor of Pfizer, it could end up stopping further Medicaid rebate information from getting into the hands of lawmakers. It could also mean that information already released would need to be returned to the confines of the Health and Human Services Commission.
