Today's must read:

As the drug industry cuts its direct sales force, they are increasingly turning to medically-trained science liaisons (MSLs) to answer physician questions about the off-label use of drugs, the Wall Street Journal reports. For one ex-MSL, it's raising serious ethical concerns.

In the news:

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said the health care reform bill would come in around $1 trillion over ten years and would include both some taxes on benefits and a requirement for employers to help subsidize their lower-income workers who wind up on Medicaid or other government assistant programs, the New York Times reports. . . .  Washington Post coverage says the shape of the public plan option is still up in the air. . . . Another Times story outlines the major options for raising the money, including a limit on high-income tax deductions, taxing high-cost health benefits, sin taxes, and Medicare cuts including hospital payments for the uninsured (whose ranks will decline with health care reform). . . .

Nestle USA officials at the Danville, VA plant responsible for the cookie dough e coli outbreak barred Food and Drug Administration inspectors from reviewing paper records at the plant after a 2006 inspection, the Wall Street Journal reports. The FDA said this was a common industry practice. Now that 69 people have been sickened, including 34 hospitalized, the company is cooperating with the agency. . . .