Last week, we wrote that Novartis was blaming a problem with market share data on IMS Health, the big gorilla among pharma data firms, and the drugmaker was telling its sales reps that some of them may have to return bonuses if a review shows they were overpaid (conversely, some may get bigger payouts, too).

Not surprisingly, many Novartis sales reps were annoyed. They claimed the decision is hurting morale and some even skeptically suggested the move is simply a way to urge reps to quit, which would help with a planned cost-cutting effort. IMS wouldn’t comment, but didn’t deny the problem. But a Novartis spokesman insisted the situation is “still under review,” before adding that other drugmakers were also given bad data by IMS and, perhaps, weren’t being “transparent” with their sales forces.

So we asked around. Not everyone has responded so far, but Glaxo, Pfizer and Schering-Plough all say they don’t have a contract for IMS to provide that particular data. A Bristol-Myers Squibb spokesman says the drugmaker was given incorrect Plavix data earlier this year, but declined to say how the problem was being resolved.

Meanwhile, a Wyeth spokeswoman acknowledges IMS caused some grief. “We’ve evaluated it on a top-line basis, but it affected some brands differently,” she says. “So we’re taking it on a brand-by-brand basis. We’re working with IMS to assess the errors.” But will Wyeth do the same thing as Novartis and ask some reps to return bonus money? She hesitated before saying, “At this point, we’re not looking to recapture the money.”

UPDATE: Late today, a Lilly spokewoman writes that the drugmaker is “awaiting all of the information we need to evaluate the impact at the individual sales territory level. When we have had an opportunity to review that, we will communicate next steps, if any, to our sales force regarding future quota targets. At this time, we do not anticipate any reduction in historic quota payouts.”

Whether it’s appropriate to ask sales reps to return money that was paid incorrectly depends on one’s point of view. Clearly, though, such a move is unlikely to improve morale or productivity. And the IMS mess, while very much a behind-the-scenes, inside baseball drama, is likely to set off a scramble among smaller, up-and-coming data firms to fight for those lucrative pharma contracts.