Peter Rost (doctor) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Peter Rost, M.D.

Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

(born 1959 in Gothenburg, Sweden) is a former vice president at the pharmaceutical company

Pharmaceutical company

The pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, and markets drugs licensed for use as medications. Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to deal in generic and/or brand medications and medical devices...

Pfizer

Pfizer, Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation. The company is based in New York City, New York with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut, United States...

and most well known for testifying in the United States Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

against the business methods of the pharmaceutical industry. He is also an author of the insider books, The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman and Killer Drug. Dr. Rost provides services as a pharmaceutical marketing expert witness, speaker and writer.

Background

Rost is the author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

of The Whistleblower, Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman. The Whistleblower is at once an unmasking of how corporations take care of malcontents and a gripping story

Narrative

A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...

of one man's fight to maintain his family and his sanity. Starting in 2003, the book

Book

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...

details the illegal, even criminal business practices the author witnessed at his corporation

Corporation

A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...

, as well as his crusade to legalize the reimportation of drugs

DRUGS

Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows are an American post-hardcore band formed in 2010. They released their debut self-titled album on February 22, 2011.- Formation :...

.

Dr. Rost first became well known in 2004 when he became the first drug company executive to speak out in favor of reimportation of drugs.

His fight for lower priced drugs was covered by radio and television broadcasts, among them 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....

, and many newspaper articles, including The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

and Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

.

Dr. Rost is the author of a medical text book, Emergency Surgery, and has written numerous op-eds for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and dozens of other major newspapers. He testified before the U.S. Senate, as well as many state congresses and conducted numerous press conferences with U.S. Senators, Members of U.S. Congress, and State Governors.

Dr. Rost was terminated from his employment as Vice President for Pfizer in December 2005. After it became known that Rost’s allegations had resulted in an ongoing criminal investigation of Pfizer’s marketing practices by the U.S. Department of Justice

United States Department of Justice

The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

, Dr. Rost was nominated "Whiny Whistleblower of the Year 2005," by a drug company front organization; The American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

The American Council on Science and Health is a nonprofit organization founded in 1978 by Dr. Elizabeth Whelan that produces peer-reviewed reports on issues related to food, nutrition, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, lifestyle, the environment and health...

. Rost competed for this title with two other consumer heroes; Dr. David Graham, FDA, and Dr. Eric Topol

Eric Topol

Eric J. Topol, M.D. is an American cardiologist, geneticist, and researcher. Much of Topol's career was spent at the Cleveland Clinic, where he served as chairman of cardiovascular medicine and founded the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine...

, the Cleveland Clinic

Cleveland Clinic

The Cleveland Clinic is a multispecialty academic medical center located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The Cleveland Clinic is currently regarded as one of the top 4 hospitals in the United States as rated by U.S. News & World Report...

. The American Council on Science and Health

American Council on Science and Health

has accepted funding from Pfizer, Rost's prior employer.

Prior to his work for Pfizer

Pfizer

Pfizer, Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation. The company is based in New York City, New York with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut, United States...

, Dr. Rost was a Managing Director for Wyeth

Wyeth

Wyeth, formerly one of the companies owned by American Home Products Corporation , was a pharmaceutical company. The company was based in Madison, New Jersey, USA...

, responsible for the Nordic region in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. During this assignment he had four countries reporting to him and he doubled sales in the region in two years and moved the sales ranking of the Swedish affiliate from #19 to #7 by lowering drug prices. Later, working for Pharmacia

Pharmacia

Pharmacia was a pharmaceutical and biotechnological company in Sweden.-History:Pharmacia was founded in 1911 in Stockholm, Sweden by pharmacist Gustav Felix Grönfeldt at the Elgen Pharmacy. The company is named after the Greek word φαρμακεία, transliterated pharmakeia, which means 'sorcery'...

, he tried to stop illegal promotion of the growth hormone

Growth hormone

Growth hormone is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction and regeneration in humans and other animals. Growth hormone is a 191-amino acid, single-chain polypeptide that is synthesized, stored, and secreted by the somatotroph cells within the lateral wings of the anterior...

Genotropin for off-label uses when the Pfizer acquisition occurred.

Influential website The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...

banned Peter Rost from blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

ging on this site in June 2006, after he discovered an anonymous heckler

Heckler

A heckler is a person who harass and try to disconcert others with questions, challenges, or gibes.Hecklers are often known to shout disparaging comments at a performance or event, or interrupts set-piece speeches, for example at a political meeting, with intent to disturb its performers or...

on his blog was actually the Post's technology manager. In his Huffington Post blog

Blog

, Peter Rost exposed the identity of the heckler

Heckler

- known as a "troll

Troll

A troll is a supernatural being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In origin, the term troll was a generally negative synonym for a jötunn , a being in Norse mythology...

" in blogging parlance - which prompted the Post to block his access. The Huffington Post later changed its policy

Policy

A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...

and disallowed employees to respond to blogs. The Post also removed "recommended replies," which Dr. Rost had shown could be abused.

In September 2006, Dr. Rost's book, "The Whistleblower, Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman" was published. The New York Post wrote, "A drug company executive is about to blow the lid off the pharmaceutical industry . . . revealing everything from sex in the corner office

Corner office

A corner office is an office that is located in the corner of a building. Corner offices are considered desirable because they have windows on two exterior walls, as opposed to a typical office with only one window or none at all...

to private investigators spying on employees, company phone surveillance, FBI investigations and financial shenanigans resulting in million-dollar payouts." And the Library Journal wrote, "Here is a chilling tale from a former Pfizer exec about his decision to expose corporate activities, including takeovers and layoffs, physician payoffs, marketing to juvenile patients, and tax dodging. This blow-by-blow account amply supports his statement that the current U.S. healthcare system is “certainly the best system for the drug companies."

On April 2, 2007, the Department of Justice

United States Department of Justice

announced that "PHARMACIA & UPJOHN COMPANY, INC., a subsidiary of Pfizer, Inc., was charged today in federal court with offering a kickback in connection with its outsourcing contract for the administration and distribution of its human growth hormone product, Genotropin. The company has agreed to plead guilty to the charge and pay a criminal fine. Additionally, another Pfizer subsidiary, PHARMACIA & UPJOHN COMPANY LLC, has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement

Deferred prosecution agreement

A deferred prosecution agreement is a voluntary alternative to adjudication in which a prosecutor agrees to grant amnesty in exchange for the defendant agreeing to fulfill certain requirements...

with the government for its illegal promotion of Genotropin for such “off-label” uses as anti-aging, cosmetic use and athletic performance enhancement. As a result of the criminal plea and deferred prosecution agreement, the companies will pay a total of $34.7 million."

In July 2007 Dr. Rost published "Killer Drug." According to Amazon.com, "THE CIA on June 26, 2007 declassified secret documents that revealed "the Agency had relations with commercial drug manufacturers, whereby they passed on drugs rejected because of unfavorable side effects." KILLER DRUG is a thriller about one such drug company."

In August 2007 Dr. Rost started to write a daily blog for BrandweekNRX and a column for Realtid, a Swedish online business newspaper. Later in 2007 Dr. Rost announced his new business venture, as a Pharmaceutical Marketing Expert Witness.

Rost has been a resident of Short Hills, New Jersey

Short Hills, New Jersey

Short Hills is an unincorporated area located within the township of Millburn, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. It is a popular commuter town for residents who work in New York City...

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.