US: IMS Health hit with pharma data manipulation claims

IMS Health was accused of “anticompetitive actions” over pharmaceutical data markets in an antitrust complaint filed by its top competitor Symphony Health Solutions, according to the Courthouse News Service on Friday. IMS Health, based in Pennsylvania, supplies health data to pharmaceutical and biotech companies to generate drug prescription and consumption predictions. Symphony is suing, claiming IMS Health cost it millions in sales and negatively affected its customers, allegedly scheming to monopolize over the industry and in turn preventing Symphony from getting a hold of 80 percent of generated data by long-term care facilities. The lawsuit also indicated that IMS Health operates in most continents, maintained “exclusive relationships” with other data suppliers, and holds a history of anticompetitive behavior. Symphony claimed that IMS Health had succeeded or tried to succeed in taking over the targeting and compensation data market, the managed market data market, the integrated global data market, and the anonymous patient longitudinal data market. Due to these violations, Symphony is seeking an “injunction, lost profits, and treble damages