Peter Rost, Pfizer Scourge, Gets A Real Job
2 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // July 31st, 2007 // 5:42 pm
That’s right. The Whistleblower, as Rost likes to call himself, is going to write about the pharmaceutical industry for a legitimate, reputable publication - BrandWeek. Although, Rost will write only for the magazine’s blog, BrandWeekNRx, since the previous writer is leaving. How do we know? Rost wrote us a private note confirming all this.
Why are we taking up space on this? Rost is a polarizing figure - a trained doctor who worked deep inside big pharma, he openly challenged the industry over pricing and importation, and then filed lawsuits against two employers - Wyeth and Pfizer - over alleged illegal practices of various sorts. In fact, Pfizer wound up paying a $35 million fine for off-label marketing.
Since then, he’s stirred up more trouble, writing about alleged off-label marketing or manipulated clinical trial data at Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Novartis on his unconventional, but widely read blog, Question Authority. And so his new gig is interesting for another reason - a blogger who is hired by the mainstream media to replace a journalist.
So instead of fading away, Rost is being given an even wider, credible platform to follow pharma. This will, no doubt, drive more than a few people inside Pfizer, and some other companies, a little crazy. But for the rest of us, it should be interesting.
Dr. David
Dear Ed,
This is indeed very good news. I read his book and was absolutely astounded and disgusted by what was done to him by Pharmacia and Pfizer. As a physician, he saw something being done by the commercial team at Pharmacia that was completely improper, reported it internally in order to try to fix it, and was terminated. The sad things are that the senior management team at Pfizer marches on and the former Pharmacia senior management team has moved over to Schering-Plough to do the same types of things and laugh all the way to the bank. The huge fine that was paid by Pfizer for Pharmacia’s mis-actions essentially was paid by the Pfizer shareholders and all of the executives from both comapnies walked away totally free to repeat the same things over and over again.
Dr. Rost did a very courageous thing and suffered greatly for it. There are many other very good people that have been treated similarly. The OIG of the FDA should wake up and follow the trails of these executives. This is the only way that Big Pharma will ever be cleaned up!
Dr. Matthew
Dr. David is completely correct. I have read the book as well and perhaps it should be required reading for the OIG. He’s not talking about illegal activities in an industry that doesn’t involve patients, he’s addressing serious healthcare issues. He was a pharma physician who was trying to do his job and protect patients at the same time. Pharmacia just wanted him to do his job and shut up.
The fat cats walk away and the shareholders pay. The blatant retaliation against Dr. Rost was atrocious and the executives should be held accountable for their actions - the CEO, commercial heads, legal, personnel, and even compliance. Their actions against the good doctor were inexecusable and they got away with it.