• Marketplace, Wednesday, February 24, 2010 10:48 AM

Kristin Nocco, who used to push Prozac, Humulin and Ceclor for Eli Lilly, now works for the State of Pennsylvania as an "academic detailer." She gives doctors a rundown of the latest independent research on which drugs and other treatments work best for different conditions. "The idea is to let doctors see how that expensive, brand name drug stacks up against the older, cheaper one," Gregory Warner reports.

"The industry's trying to sell a product," says Tom Snedden, Nocco's boss and the head of a program for Pennsylvania that helps low-income seniors pay for drugs. "What we're trying to sell is clinically appropriate prescribing." He supervises 11 academic detailers compared to Pennsylvania's 8,000 drug reps, but he says it's a very effective "band of guerrillas." Doctors who have met with academic detailers prescribe fewer brand name drugs and fewer drugs overall.

Ten states now have similar programs and a bill making its way through Congress -- separate from health care reform -- would establish them around the country.

Read the whole story at Marketplace »