The American Council on Science and Health announced that they nominated former Pfizer Vice President Peter Rost, M.D., to "Whiny Whistleblower of the Year."
Rost has been an advocate for drug re-importation and was terminated by Pfizer on December 1, 2005. Rost filed a wrongful termination lawsuit on December 12, 2005 against Pfizer, Inc., Hank McKinnell, and other senior officers. A copy of Rost’s complaint, case no. 05-CV-10384, filed in US District Court, Southern District of NY, and supporting documents can be viewed on the Green & Savits website.
The complaint alleges that Pfizer and the defendants violated the NJ Conscientious Employee Protection Act, the whistle-blowing prohibition of the False Claims Act, New Jersey common law public policy prohibiting retaliation against whistleblowers and retaliated against a grand jury witness in violation of federal law
In his nomination, Gilbert Ross, M.D., Executive and Medical Director of the ACSH stated that the biggest “Whiny Whistleblower” for 2005 was “the person who most outrageously defied his or her employer, regardless of loyalty, science, or even common sense.”
“I vote for ex-Pfizer V.P. Dr. Peter Rost, an inept exec but a pretty good whistleblower. He provoked a federal investigation of his own company in 2003, alleging that Pfizer was responsible for the improper marketing of the synthetic growth hormone Genotropin,” wrote Ross.
"Rost's destructive enough to get the prize, you may think. But wait, his whistleblower credentials are even stronger: Rost tried to sabotage his benefactors at Pfizer -- not to mention the best interests of the American public -- by arguing against the company's position that importing cheaper drugs from Canada (among other places) was a bad idea for the consumer in the long run," argued Ross, adding "Rost maintained that the anti-importation position was a ploy by industry to fool the public and keep profits high. His position, of course, was not unique: many politicians and demagogues held the same position, echoed by media advocates of a government takeover of all medical care. He even made it onto 60 Minutes. The fact that such imports would inevitably include counterfeit and even toxic substandard medications, and that importing cheap drugs would also be importing foreign price controls, was not mentioned in his diatribes against Pfizer."
Ross writing at the ACSH website added, "I wondered why in the world his Pfizer employers would tolerate such perfidy and keep him on their payroll. On December 2, I found out: it was then that his attempt to get the Feds to participate in his whistleblower suit came to naught. Pfizer had hesitated to fire him for fear of being accused of interference with an investigation. With the investigation over, Rost was promptly fired."
To Ross' post and the award, Rost responds:
"To be officially nominated ‘Whiny Whistleblower of the Year’ by a front organization paid by Pfizer and Big Pharma is a great honor, even more so since I apparently competed against two real consumer heroes; Dr. David Graham, FDA, and Dr. Eric Topol, the Cleveland Clinic," Rost said, adding "I’m only saddened that Dr. Ross failed to mention that under my leadership Genotropin became the #1 performing +$100 million Pfizer franchise vs. budget in 2003.”
The following drug companies contributed to ACSH, according to ACSH’s 1991 annual report and ACSH Corporate Donors 1997: Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Abbott Laboratories, Eli Lilly, American Cyanamid, Ciba-Geigy, Hoffman-La Roche, Johnson & Johnson, Rhone-Poulenc, Sandoz, Searle, Syntex, Warner-Lambert, Upjohn, Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association.
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