THE PETER ROST BLOG

Peter Rost, M.D., is a former Pfizer Marketing Vice President providing services as a marketing expert, speaker and writer. He is the author of Emergency Surgery, The Whistleblower and Killer Drug. You can reach him on rostpeter (insert symbol) hotmail.com. Please read the terms of use agreement and privacy policy for this blog carefully and note that even if this blog sometimes covers serious topics it is mostly closer to Saturday Night Live than 60 Minutes.

Friday, June 30, 2006

Ridiculopathy: "Pfizer CEO Suicidal Over Loss of Zoloft Patent"

Rididculopathy.com, which is a source for enjoyment, serious news and perhaps not so serious news, claims that the Pfizer CEO is suicidal over the loss of Zoloft patent.

While I doubt this is true, this is what they write: "Shares of drug maker Pfizer took a nosedive on Thursday, not only because the company's blockbuster antidepressant Zoloft had lost patent protection but also because its CEO Hank McKinnell appears to have lost his will to live."

They claim the Pfizer CEO would have said, "You spend years researching new drugs and hoping against hope that just one of them will pay off," read McKinnell. "You invest everything you have, your money, your heart and soul, and eventually it all comes down to this: nothing. I tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn't even matter."

As if all that weren't enough, "Pfizer has announced a strategic partnership with a competitor to produce a generic version of its own drug."

While that may seem like a sensible way to recapture some of the lost revenue, this new offering will also be competing with Pfizer's own branded version of Zoloft.

"I know it sounds stupid," said McKinnell, banging himself on the head with a shoe. "And believe me, it is. I'm so stupid. So stupid! But it's not like we're going to make any money on it. Zoloft was a dumb drug, anyway. I'm glad it's gone. I hate Zoloft."

All of this according to Ridiculopathy.

Read the full story here.

2 Comments:

Rosethejet said...: Too funny and further proof we are too money oriented. Doing a good job means putting money uber alles. Drug companies, car companies, local shops who all come across as too greedy for the buck. Not all but I see far too much of it and it is why our congress is owned lock, stock and barral by the corporate pimps who control them.

A recent FDA news bit I read showed just how much control over the FDA and get drugs approved well before their time and it always comes back to who owns the FDA. In this case the corporaticists who run the White House have full control over the FDA and if it might even get close to interfering with their profits, then a few phones calls and VIOLA! approved.

Just disgusting and with the provisions constantly trying to be shoved into bills by Rethug congressmen to make all pharmacies completely immune to lawsuits, it's only going to get worse until we vote out all the incumbents, which aint' gonna happen with redistricting now up in the air for every election.

We have lost our way and it isn't even dark.; 6/30/2006
MsMelody said...: McKinnell is suicidal? If he dies, does his hefty pay, perks & retirement package revert to Pfizer?; 6/30/2006

Links to this post:

<$BlogBacklinkTitle$>: <$BlogBacklinkSnippet$>
posted by <$BlogBacklinkAuthor$> @ <$BlogBacklinkDateTime$>

Create a Link

<< Home

THE PETER ROST BLOG

By Lee Howard, The Day, CT If Pfizer Inc. were to describe its worst nightmare, it might very well be seeing former company whistleblower Peter Rost become commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. So guess who is actively seeking the FDA's top post? Rost, a former Pfizer vice president who turned whistleblower after he alleged that a subsidiary of the company started promoting off-label uses of various drugs, not only is in the running for FDA commissioner, but he has at least two congressmen in his corner. This week, the Web site Pharmalot reported that U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, would be sending a letter of recommendation for Rost as well as several other candidates for the post. Rost also has picked up support from U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who has been involved in many investigations of the FDA. ”I encourage you to seek meaningful reform of the FDA, which begins with a complete change in the FDA's leadership,” Stupak wrote in a letter to president-elect Obama endorsing Rost's candidacy. Rost said he is looking for a shakeup of the FDA, including a reorienting of the agency's priorities from serving the drug industry to helping American citizens. ”That means the agency would focus not only on the fastest and most efficient processing of new drug applications, but would also ensure that unsafe drugs are taken off the market or labeling (is) revised in a more timely manner,” Rost said in an interview this week with eDrugSearch. com, which endorsed his candidacy. Some of Rost's most controversial stances include his views on reimportation of drugs from Canada, which he approves, and his opposition to direct-to-consumer advertising. ”DTC advertising is not part of a 'free market' - it is part of manipulation of consumers who don't know better and doctors who give the patient whatever they ask for,” Rost said. Pfizer fired Rost in 2005 after it became known that the marketing executive's allegations about off-label promotion of drugs had led to a criminal investigation against the company. Rost went on to write a bestseller about his experiences, titled “The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman,” which detailed payouts to doctors, marketing drugs to children and various illegal and unethical activities he said he witnessed.