Senator Recommends Peter Rost As FDA Commish
20 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // December 4th, 2008 // 11:48 am
For the past month, a favorite sport among some Washington insiders and, certainly, the pharmaceutical world has been trying to figure out who will succeed the unflappable Andy von Eschenbach as FDA commissioner. Would it be the FDA’s own Janet Woodcock? Baltimore health commissioner Josh Sharfstein? Duke’s Robert Califf? Harvard’s David Blumenthal? Or maybe Cleveland Clinic’s Steve Nissen?
Now, US Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, is nominating several candidates for the post and one of them is…. drumroll…. Peter Rost, the former marketing exec who is embroiled in a whistleblower lawsuit with Pfizer (look here) and gained notoriety for stumping in Washington DC – with Brown at his side – in favor of importing lower-cost drugs from Canada. Brown’s legislative director, who has been in touch with Rost, confirms that the senator is sending a letter of recommendation on behalf of Rost, as well as several other candidates “whom he believes merit consideration for the post.”
From: Dehoney, Eleanor (Brown)
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 12:37 PM
To: ‘Peter Rost’
Subject: RE: Senator BrownHi Peter, Sherrod is going to do a letter of recommendation to send to the right folks on the transition team. Will try to get it out the door today or Friday.
From: Peter Rost [mailto:rostpeter@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 1:54 PM
To: Dehoney, Eleanor (Brown)
Subject: RE: Senator Brown
Dear Ellie,
Thanks for your offer to assist!
Specifically I’d like to be considered for FDA Commissioner, and I figured that for this position I need to also ask the people in the Senate that I’ve worked with in the past for help, so that my name is forwarded to the right decision makers with a recommendation. I have also filled out the online application.
In short my position is that the FDA needs some serious change and so does our national healthcare policy:
1. The FDA needs to work for the people, not the drug companies. This means speedier drug warnings and removal of unsafe drugs.
2. Limit direct-to-consumer drug advertising which creates demand for inappropriate treatment (i.e. Vioxx)
3. Reimportation of drugs should be regulated and legalized, to minimize sale of unsafe Internet drugs and increase choice for low income patients.
4. Hundreds of unapproved drugs sold illegally but openly because the FDA doesn’t “have time” to enforce the law is unacceptable, see USA Today article.
5. The agency needs to be managed more efficiently and focus better on what makes a difference to the health and well being of American citizens.
By the way, there is an ongoing online poll among pharmaceutical employees, academics and bloggers and journalists about who should become the next FDA Commissioner, started by Pharma Marketing. For results see this . . . I appear to be leading even among the responders most positive to the drug industry!
Please let me know if I can give you any further information.
Regards,
Peter
——————————————————————————–
Subject: Senator Brown
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:35:34 -0500
From: Dehoney, Eleanor (Brown)
To: rostpeter@hotmail.com
Hi Peter, I’m Senator Brown’s Legislative Director. Sherrod asked me to follow up on your letter expressing interest in a position within the Obama Administration. You probably know (but I didn’t!) that all candidates have to fill out the initial form on http://change.gov/page/s/application. Please let me know if we can be helpful in any way.
Ellie Dehoney
Legislative Director
US Senator Sherrod Brown
Jeffrey Clark, CEO of Beaker.com,
Whether Rost will be seriously considered is a big question mark. I am pretty sure there are plenty of bugs in the ear of Rahm Emanuel & the transition team from PhRMA, BIO, AdvaMed….nevermind all the unsolicited advice coming from Capitol Hill.
Without question, this process of selecting a new FDA commissioner will be a saga for the whole industry to watch unfold.
Lichtstrasse 35
While Peter Rost would be an “out of the box” choice, President-elect Obama, Secretary-designate Daschle, and the transition team have enough on their collective plates without stirring up the attention that PR’s nomination would bring to the new administration. Perhaps he could end up in a senior role in the agency or at HHS, but I don’t see him as “The Commish.”
BPW
This is a joke, right? It’s like Paulsen running for president! There is no way that this will ever fly.
Matt
A former marketing executive? A commercial man? You’ve got to be kidding!
Meg
Just what that agency needs – and Pharma would love – a hot-rodding Pharma marketing exec when it is known to all that the agency has failed in its very first charge: Protect the public health. Check the blog furious seasons today as well as the website AHRP.ORG.
Derek Lowe
Surely you jest. Surely someone jests.
At a guess, Ed, you just might have heard about this from. . .Peter Rost himself? I’ve had some of his e-mails, too, and this is exactly the sort of self-press-release he loves.
harpy
Whew (wipes eyes) I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. Go for it, Peter! You’ve nothing to lose.
John Mack
25% of respondents to my “Who Should Obama Nominate for FDA Commissioner?” selected Peter Rost from a list of 10 contenders. That’s far and away ahead of Steve Nissen (2nd place) and Susan Wood (third place) with 14% and 13% of the vote, respectively.
You can take the survey here: http://tinyurl.com/634r47
and vote yourself. Afterward, you’ll be able to see a summary of the de-identified results for yourself.
John Mack
Pharma Marketing Blog
P.S. You can blame me for starting the whole Rost for FDA COmmish bandwagon! See http://tinyurl.com/6mvmzk
Salmon
My guess is that Congress has had a short list and favorite for quite a while
Ed Silverman
Hi Derek,
Sorry for the belated reply, but I only just now saw your comment, because it was caught in our spam filter (nothing personal, I assure you).
And yes, Rost issued an e-mail blast earlier today about this and I followed up by asking for some verification. I then contacted Brown’s legislative director and she confirmed for me what I wrote in the post. (And I mention that I reached out to her, too).
So is this self-promotion? Of course, but there’s a lot of that going around and, in any event, Brown’s willingness to write a recommendation is rather interesting, which is why I decided to post something.
Cheers
ed
Justice in MI
Whatever else, not a “no-drama obama” direction.
Personally, i would like to put myself forward as FDA Entomologist. I would be like to interview the flies that had been on some of the walls in there.
Chris
Dr. Rost has been promoting himself heavily for this role, but Mr. Obama is too smart. I predict it would be a disaster!
Dr. Peter Rost for FDA Commissioner
Fascinating comments.
For those who are less than supportive may I humbly suggest a review of my CV over at http://drugexpertwitness.com/
I think my past performance speaks for itself.
It is time to get someone who truly understands the drug business, that the FDA is supposed to regulate, to run the FDA.
After all, yet another academic is no match for Big Pharma.
Nathan
Peter, after viewing your website, I hardly think you can be honest when you say “may I humbly suggest”. I don’t see anything even remotely resembling “humility” on your site. Impressive though it is, it actually looks like you had quite an ego-trip putting it together!
Justice in Michigan
Reference to “fascinating comments” is precisely the kind of indirect communication that frankly makes me nervous, even though I have been a supporter of yours over the years.
Please say directly what you think. No irony. No innuendo. No BS. Just tell us, for God’s sake.
Been There
During my tenure with Pfizer, I either know Rost’s accounts of facts to be true or at least highly credible. It seems to me that where he loses credibility is when he strays from the facts and adds to them his opinions. While these are not at all incredible, with these he seems to lose his audience and support. A little bit of public relations polish or media training would make Dr. Rost a formidable voice.
tim
hey Mr Rost You should contact me
John Mack
Rost is losing ground in my “Who Should Obama Nominate for FDA Commissioner?” survey.
Rost’s share of votes from all 373 respondents has dropped to 19.9% (from 24% last week) and Steve Nissen is closing in with 17.2% of the vote.
Nissen is #1 among 329 US respondents — the most important ones in this survey — with 18.9% of those votes compared to Rost’s 15.9%.
You can take the survey and vote for your choice among 10 candidates (or write in your own) here: http://tinyurl.com/634r47
You’ll be able to see up-to-date results after completing the survey.
Thanks.
P.S. I heard the Rep Stupak is reported to be backing Mr Rost.
tim
its seems this site is censored my previous comments didnt make it through mediation????????? Considering some that are up here thats terrible I will remeber to mention that
tim
hey ed is my post still stuck in your spam filter. If you havent view the video i understand if you have well thats different