Posted At Brandweek.com
BY : Jim Edwards
Peter Rost, Pfizer's vp-marketing for endocrinology and a longtime critic of his employer's public policy, was fired Thursday, Rost said in a statement e-mailed to friends and members of the press Thursday evening.
The statement also said that he believed Pfizer had been the subject of a criminal investigation by the Boston U.S. Attorney's office into the drug Genotropin. That investigation was halted earlier this month, court papers show.
On the same day, Pfizer revealed it had filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the company by Rost in 2003. In that case, a judge has ordered that federal authorities be kept apprised of the litigation.
That suitwhich claims Pfizer and a company it acquired, Pharmacia, illegally marketed the human growth hormone Genotropin for off-label (i.e. unapproved) purposeshad been kept under seal until now.
In its motion to dismiss, Pfizer wrote that the company, not Rost, informed the government of the controversy surrounding Rost's allegations, and that the problems only came to light as a result of Pfizer's acquisition of Pharmacia in 2003.
The firing was expected, to put it mildly. Even with the investigation and legal action being kept under wraps, Rost has been a thorn in Pfizer's side for months.
Since October of last year, Rost has appeared in Congress and on CBS's 60 Minutes to put forth his view that Americans should be able to buy cheaper drugs from Canada. He has also been deposed in a California price-fixing case against Pfizer and other drug companies.
He has written op-ed pieces for major newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, criticizing Pfizer's stance that Canadian drugs are unsafe.
At one point, he triggered a brief investigation by the New Jersey U.S. Attorney's Office into whether Pfizer trod on his civil rights by hassling him for testifying to the Senate.
On Thursday, he revealed he was involved in a separate legal proceeding in Massachusetts involving Pfizer.
"Based on my information to the government, there is an ongoing criminal investigation of Genotropin, led by Susan Winkler, assistant US Attorney, Boston. I have testified twice before a grand jury in Boston, and several of my colleagues have also testified. I'm not prepared to make any detailed comments today, since I haven't had a chance to discuss the new situation with my lawyers," Rost's e-mail said.
Genotropin is a product that is, officially, within Rost's portfolio. He did not elaborate on what he believed the wrongdoing surrounding Genotropin had been. His complaint, however, alleges that Genotropin was promoted for its anti-aging effects in adults and for unapproved genetic disorders in children. Off-label marketing produced $50 million in illegal sales, or 25% of total, the complaint argues.
In its filing yesterday, Pfizer argued that it was Pfizer lawyers, not Rost, who were the true whistleblowersinforming federal officials of Genotropin irregularities before Rost filed the proper legal paperwork. On that basis, his suit is merely piling on, Pfizer's papers state.
Rost had been removed from his day-to-day duties at Pfizer for months. At one point, he claimed, Pfizer cut off his company cell phone. Service was eventually restored. He also claimed that he had been removed from the company's chain of command.
Pfizer had no response to a request for comment, outside of forwarding copies of its legal papers.
