The former marketing exec who made a name for himself as whistleblower and irreverant blogger has parted ways with BrandWeek, which hired him this past summer to replace Jim Edwards and write a blog about, of all things, the pharmaceutical industry. The departure occurs, perhaps not coincidentally, as Rost set himself up as a litigation consultant to attorneys who are looking to sue drugmakers. That would appear more lucrative than blogging. In any event, he maintains BrandWeek was happy with his gig. No word right now on any replacement.

“Visitor stats performed admirably (as you can tell from the last post), and BrandweekNRX was by far Brandweek’s most read blog, but advertising revenue, one year after Brandweek started the site, doesn’t justify the current cost, so that gig is over,” he tells Pharmalot. “But it seems as if Brandweek and the Nielsen Company were pretty happy with my performance, because they are now exploring a few other options where my ability to attract an audience might be useful. We’ll see what happens; the ball is in their court.”

For those who may have somehow missed it all, Rost landed on the industry radar screen a few years ago by filing suit against Wyeth, where he worked in Europe overseeing product. From there, he arrived in the US and was hired by Pharmacia, which was later bought by Pfizer. And that’s where Rost - who is also a doctor - gained notoriety.

He not only filed a whistleblower suit over allegations of off-label promotion of Genotropin, a human growth hormone, but he thumbed his nose at the entire industry by fashioning himself as a spokesman in favor of importing meds from Canada. Rost testified before Congress and appeared on national television. Although the federal government declined to join the whistleblower suit and a federal judge dismissed the suit, the case was recently remanded back to district court. So Rost gets another whack at Pfizer, which has denied the charges all along.

“Right now (the BrandWeek departure) is actually a bit of a blessing in disguise, because my litigation consultant business has taken off and if it continues, things could get really interesting next year,” Rost writes.

“There are lots of physicians working as expert witnesses in drug litigation, but I am the only former pharmaceutical executive, so I provide a unique insight and service. Now it’s just a matter of educting the trial lawyers that such a thing exists . . . I’m planning an interesting advertising campaign to do this, in conjunction with FindLaw, starting January 7.”