Time Magazine

Time magazine has an interesting report on counter-detailing, focusing on South Carolina’s SCORxE program: South Carolina Offering Prescribing Excellence (yes, that’s the way Time reports it, not SCOPE which seems more logical.) The idea is that the state funded program has pharmacists visiting physicians, offering objective information about drug selection and countering the efforts of corporate representatives to promote more expensive drugs when a generic drug can do the same job at a lower price. The report estimates that every dollar spent on the program saves $2 in drug costs. While South Carolina tends to be a conservative state, and opposition to a program of using state money to counter corporate effort was expected, the program seems to be popular.

But according to Time, there is a major debate going on – should the people doing the counter-detailing work bring pizza?