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SWEDEN- The Secret Files

The size of Sweden

8.9 million inhabitants occupy the fourth largest country in Europe. If you were to swing Sweden round at 180° using the southernmost tip as the axis, you could reach central Italy no problem. Mind you, the Sami (Laplanders) would want to know what they were suddenly doing in Naples. travel by sleeper. This means that not many Swedes know what their country looks like. They either fly 10 000 metres above it or sleep through it.

Geography

The southern part of Sweden is the most densely populated and is inhabited by people called Scanians, a kind of Swedish-speaking Dane. They are proud to tell you that they were once a part of Denmark and that they have absolutely nothing in common with the rest of the country. Indeed they are geographically closer to Berlin than to Stockholm. The southern part of Sweden is the gateway to Europe and the rest of the world. Or at least to Copenhagen for a good night out.
The north of Sweden is inhabited by northerners (Norrlänningar) and the Sami (Laplanders), an ancient hunting and fishing nomadic people who live in tents and speak a Finno-Urgic language they themselves can hardly understand. This is perhaps why they hardly say anything at all. Norrland, as this area is called, stretches across 60% of Sweden and is so sparsely populated that the inhabitants hardly ever meet anyone to talk to.
In central Sweden lies the capital, Stockholm. Stockholm is inhabited by ’zero eights’, so called because of their telephone area codes. ’Zero eights’ have a reputation for being like sea-gulls, they scream and cause a mess wherever they go. Well, that’s what the Swedish-speaking Danes say in the south. The people of the north haven’t said a word. As usual.

The Swedish summer

The Swedish summer is the warmest day of the year. And as Sweden is a very normal country, it is normal for the Swedish summer to be a bit colder than normal.

The Swedish winter

The geography book will tell you that, although the country is on the same latitude as Alaska, Sweden has a mild climate and the Atlantic Gulf stream gives warm winters. The truth is that there are two types of winter in Sweden. A grey one and a white one. Swedes survive the winter only by dreaming of what they are going to do on that summer’s day.

Sweden - a peace-loving nation

Sweden is a peace-loving country. There is, after all, such a thing as the Nobel Peace Prize. Having invented dynamite, gelignite and nitroglycerine, and other substances enough to blow the earth out of the solar system, the Swede Alfred Nobel got a guilty conscience and used his profits to set up the Nobel Foundation.
The Swedes are neutral because they say they are. They are the conscience of the world and therefore only sell peaceful weapons. Preferably to be used as fireworks.

Europa!

For most Swedes Europe starts on the other side of the Sound in Copenhagen. Sweden joined the EU in 1995, although most of them would have preferred the EU to join Sweden on their terms.
99% of the Swedes are now soberly against the EU as it is no longer possible to buy tax-free spirits and cigarettes when travelling from one EU country to another. For, up to now, it has always been the duty of every Swede to buy his ration both on the way out and on the way back. Once at a hotel in one of Europe’s exciting metropolises, Swedes used to gather, lock themselves up in the room and drink duty-free booze out of the toothbrush glass. The fact that bar prices in Europe are usually considerably lower than even Swedish tax-free prices never occurred to them.

Scandinavian neighbors

As Victor Borge, the Danish entertainer, once said. Some things are better in Sweden than in Denmark. The Swedes have better neighbors.
Norway is very sparsely inhabited and has a average of three inhabitants per mountain. Norway always regarded itself as the little brother of Sweden until someone pointed out that if you flattened all the mountains, the country would be fifty times larger than it’s big brother. That and earning zillions of crowns from North Sea oil has done wonders to raise Norwegian self-esteem.

Swedish politics

Swedes are liberal, yet they always vote for the social democrats. That’s because they are so conservative. Or, as the well-known saying goes, the Swedes are a colorful people. They think blue, vote red and eat green.

Swedish tax

Governments in Sweden have spent years convincing Swedes that their money isn’t really their own. But the Swede is a person of great initiative and has developed a few ways of keeping a few crowns for himself. Nobody is allowed to get rich. If people in other countries se someone drive round in a flashy sports car, they may exclaim ’Wow! What a cool guy!’ In Sweden they’ll say ’What a tax-dodger’.

Business climate in Sweden

In the USA business people go to their therapist’s after a nervous breakdown. In Sweden people running their own businesses go to their accountant’s.

Swedish business culture

Swedish managers want to be normal people and one of the team. That is why they like to be called by they first names; Bengan, Maggan, Bosse and Kalle by their staff. They never shut their office door and they even queue up in the same canteen as the workers and eat the same food. They like to think of themselves more as a coach than a commander. Swedish management delegates responsibility and authority throughout the organization. Over 80% of Swedes have some form of vocational training and staff are therefore quite capable of taking initiative and participating in the decision-making. For foreigners it’s sometimes difficult to know who’s in charge around here. Lasse in his open-necked, short-sleeved, yellow shirt and white socks and sneakers, doesn’t really look the part.

Swedish inventions

Sweden gave the world ball-bearings, safety matches, adjustable wrenches, safety belts, Tetra Paks, Volvo and Saab. It also makes and exports Absolut vodka, which is rather ironic as the Swedish word for teetotalers is ’Absolutist’. Ikea, of course , is also Swedish. If the social democrats created the welfare state, commonly referred to as ’the home of the people’, then Ikea furnished it.



Swedish schedules

The Bible of the modern Swede is his filofax. Everything he has to do for the next six months is meticulously written down. Take kids to day care, drop of suit for cleaning, ring dentist, meeting with sales team, fax figures, lunch with Bengan, meeting, pick up car, drive home, take off shoes, shout at kids. It’s all in there - every movement. All planned and organised down to the very last minute. If a Swede misplaces his filofax then he loses direction in life - he simply does not know what to do next.
Everything is planned weeks in advance and written down next to the times it has to be performed. Flexibility is not the name of the game here. Once written in, then thy will be done. Swedes are impressed by filofaxes which are full and overflowing. A chock-a-block filofax is a status symbol. The next time you want to arrange a meeting with a Swede, watch how he instinctively reaches for his filofax, opens it in January and flicks through week after week, month after month of crammed appointments finally to stop
in October some time.
Then something will happen. Your Swedish business partner will mutter something like ’Is week 37 OK? I can squeeze you in in week 38’. Swedes count weeks. Each week has a number. Ask the average Swede when week 29 is and he hasn’t got a clue. But that gives him another excuse to reach for his filofax and start flicking through. He’ll find that it’s in July, in the middle of his holiday and therefore he couldn’t care less what the number of the week is.

000101

Swedes write the date backwards. Year first, then month and then day. Nobody says the date that way, but Swedes are sure it’s the right way to write it. Everybody has a national registration number with ten digits based on the date of their birth and a few extra ones, such as 581023-6879. Or as one Swede put it ”It’s the day, month and year when you were born backwards and then followed by four figures”. Childbirth is a painful business in Sweden.


The Social Swede

Swedish homes

These are usually very tasteful, yet simply furnished. Swedish homes are simple, clean and uncluttered. Foreign guests very often ask ’How nice. When are you moving in?’ Swedes have good taste in furniture and home-decorating. Walls are usually painted in a plain colour and the sofa, the carpets, and the curtains all match. Indeed, when they entertain at home, even the candles match the curtains, which match the table cloth which matches the serviettes which often match the hostess’s dress.

Invited to dinner - 1

They take the paper off a bunch of flowers before they ring the doorbell of their hosts for the evening. It’s rather like unwrapping a Christmas present before you give it to someone. Nobody ever knows where to put the paper once they’ve screwed it up. Usually the hostess end up taking it. A bunch of pretty flowers in one hand and a soggy, screwed up piece of wrapping paper in the other.

Invited to dinner - 2

The person sitting next to you at the dinner table will offer you a lump of butter on a wooden knife. It is not some ancient superstitious Viking ritual whereby the knife has to be passed once round the table. It’s quite simply the height of politeness to offer your neighbor some butter on a knife. What you do if there’s not enough butter on the knife or if there is some left over, goodness knows. But there’s no need to pass it on to the next person as he’s busy handing butter to someone else.


Invited to dinner - 3

Swedes are very polite guests. They show much appreciation for the food. They guess the ingredients, enquire how it was cooked, wonder where the ingredients were bought and ask how long it needed in the oven. In fact, most guests ask for the recipe and this is the greatest of compliments. They eat and mutter ’This was good’ which is rather strange as they are still eating it.

At the restaurant - 1

You are forced to hang up your coat when entering a restaurant as it is infested with all sorts of harmful
bacteria. For this pleasure you are expected to pay. Why should you pay? To pay the cloakroom attendant. Why have a cloakroom attendant? If they didn’t there’d be no-one to take your 15 crowns. Get it?

At the restaurant - 2

Swedes believe in fairness. No-one should be in debt to anyone else. Consequently they insist on all paying their fair share at the restaurant when the bill comes. Who had what and how much takes forever to work out and is not made easier by the fact that nobody at that stage has a clear head. Lenghty calculations on a serviette and countless restarts later, they’ve worked out how much each person owes down to the last krona. This is when several in the group realize they need to take out an instant bank loan.

Swedish alcohol policy

The Swedes do have an alcohol problem. It’s so expensive that no-one can afford it. How can anyone afford to get drunk, let alone become an alcoholic?
The ’Systembolaget’ (the system company) is the national retail monopoly which displays wine and beer behind locked glass cases. If you really must buy the horrid stronger stuff, then it’s safely stacked away on shelves behind the counter. No wonder Swedes think it’s an exciting adventure to go into a bright, open, welcoming tax-free shop at the airport where they are trusted to pick up a bottle of booze and not drink it before reaching the check-out.

Wine

How do you ask for something if you can’t pronounce it? To help Swedes get their tongues around strange foreign names once they reach the counter, the Systembolaget’s brochure used to contain the phonetic pronunciation of all the wines on sale. Coteaux de Langedoc became something like
kåtå de långödock which doesn’t look at all drinkable. Today, as fully fledged members of the EU and therefore full-blooded Europeans, Swedes have to manage without this customer-friendly linguistic help. Mind you, if you ask for a Californian wine in fluent English, the chances are the assistant won’t understand. They need a Swedish accent.

Beer

Beer in Sweden is classified into four types according to alcohol content. This is perhaps best explained by a Swedish business man in a Stockholm restaurant who had just been told by his Japanese guests that they would like to drink beer with their meal.
’In Sweden we have beer with different classes. You can have a ’lätt öl’ which is a light, easy beer with no alcohol. You can even drink it at lunch time. Then you can have a ’people’s beer’, a folköl, and if you want you can buy that in shops. We also have in Sweden a mellanöl which is a ’middle-class beer’. Yes and then you have another one, a class 3 one too. This is a big, strong one but you have to go to the system company to get it. But not on Sundays.’ I think they then asked for mineral water.

Snaps

If you want to get the Swedes singing then open a bottle of ice-cold snaps - which is the Swedish word for schnapps. Swedes drink snaps, flavoured with caraway, aniseed, coriander, fennel and wormwood, with herring (of course) and crayfish.
You’ll please them no end if you, too, were to join in the singing of a ’snapsvisa’ (a song which accompanies schnapps).
Here is an English transcription of one of the most famous songs. Grab a Swede and sing along. Skål!
Hell and gore
Chung hop father Allan Allan lay
Hell and gore
Chung hop father Allan lay

Oh handsome inter hell an tar
Hand hell air inter half an four
Hell and gore!
(Now knock it back in one)
Chung hop father Allan lay

Swedish food

This is delicious. Swedes love anything that is pickled in spice and vinegar. You pickle it, they’ll eat it. Other tasty delicacies include fried salted herring, marinated herring and more pickled herring. Certain dishes are associated with particular holidays and times of the year. At Christmas, the Swedes eat a Christmas ham which is all very nice. They also eat dried stock fish. Believe it or not this is dried fish soaked in lye. (Are your mouths watering?). This is followed by cold rice pudding. Yes, you read correctly.
Swedes get very excited about the advent of new potatoes. There is nothing like a new potato having just been pulled out of the rich fertile soil of Scania, southern Sweden. The price per kilo in the first weeks is prohibitive but after a while normal Swedes, as they all are of course, can afford what they’ve all been waiting for. Swedish new potatoes are usually eaten with chives, sour cream and-yes, you’ve guessed it, pickled herring.
Once you have tasted pickled herring, salt herring and marinated herring it is time to try fermented baltic herring. A specialty from the north, the fish is nowadays tinned. The tins become spherical as the fermentation continues. To the uninitiated the smell, once the tin has been opened, reminds you of….
No wonder there are so many MacDonald hamburger joints in Sweden.
No, seriously. Swedish cooking has opened itself up to all manner of international influences which has led to a Swedish culinary miracle. Stockholm restaurants can match anything that Parisians can offer.
’Smaklig måltid!’ which in English means Bon appétit!

The normal Swede

Every Swede should aspire to being normal and average. There’s no greater compliment than to be called an ordinary kind of person. ’To be as people usually are’ is a fine way to describe yourself and you’ll instantly earn others’ respect. Successful people are just normal people who have had a spot of luck - but it won’t last. Every Swede can tell you about ’Jantelagen’ the law of Jante. This states that you shouldn’t think you are somebody. Somebody who is somebody pretends to be nobody because anybody can be
nobody and nobody would really want to be seen as somebody in the eyes of anybody. Get it?

The honest Swede

Swedes are basically honest. They don’t like cheating. That’s a foreign habit. There are only two occasions when it’s acceptable to cheat. Joy-riding on the Stockholm underground which is regarded as a kind of sport, and filling in your income-tax forms which is regarded a necessity.

The silent Swede

Silence is not necessarily negative. Swedes are marvelously reflective and introvert. To sit and say nothing for an hour is good for the soul. Indeed, which other nation would sing about the virtues of silence in
their national anthem? ’Du gamla, du fria, du fjällhöga nord. Du tysta, du glädjerika sköna’. (Ye ancient, ye land of the free, the high fells of the north. Ye silent, ye glorious beauty).

The Grateful Swede

The Swedes are a very thankful people. They may not have a vord for ’please’ but they more than compensate by using the word ’tack’ (thank you) in any number of situations. They say ’tack’ or ’tack tack’. The reply is ’tack’ or even ’tack tack’. They say ’tusen tack’ if they are particularly grateful which is a thousand thank yous, and which in English is multiplied by another thousand to become ’thanks a million’. They say ’tack för maten’ after a meal, which means thank you for the food and they say ’tack för senast’ meaning thank you your hospitality the last time we met. They say ’ja tack’ for ’yes please and’tack själv’ for thank you.

The ’lagom bra’ Swede or the Swede who is not too good but, then again, not so bad either.

The Complete Oxford Dictionary may boast over 650 000 entries to prove that English is a very wordy language. Swedish, on the other hand, has a smaller vocabulary, but they compensate by having words for which there is no English equivalent. Swedes are fond of neither extravagance in any form nor excesses (except in liquid form). Which is why they have a word like ’lagom’, meaning ’just enough’ and ’with moderation’. Everything can, and indeed should be, ’lagom’. What is absolutely-fanastic-marvellous-way-out-super-terrific to an American is ’lagom bra’ to a Swede (’Just about right and nothing to make a fuss about’). ’Bra’ here means ’good’ and has nothing to do with lingerie in medium size.
Doing things in moderation means always taking the middle path. If there is a choice between ’ja’ and ’nej’ the Swedes say ’Nja’. If there is heartless capitalism on one hand and mindless socialism on the other, the Swedes develop a ’lagom’ sort of compromise called the Swedish Muddle or is it Model?

The safety-conscious Swede

Swedes need to feel safe and secure in everything they do. They wear knee pads, cycle helmets, ear plugs, protective glasses and life-jackets - and that’s when they do the washing up.

Patriotism

Swedes hang Swedish flags on their Christmas trees. Swedes even wipe their mouths on the Swedish flag as you’ll even find Swedish flags on serviettes on special occasions. The Swedish flag appears on birthday cards, Christmas cards and playing cards. The Swedish national day is called the day of the Swedish flag when you may even find a Swedish flag at the top of a fag-pole. In fact the flag is run up on the slightest excuse. They hoist the flag if there’s a birthday in your family, or indeed in anybody’s family. They hoist it when they are expecting guests, they hoist it on Sundays and public holidays, and on the king’s birthday.
They’ll hoist it simply because everybody else has hoisted theirs.

Immigrants

Sweden probably has the highest rate of academics in the cleaning business and in hotel kitchens. They are all called Hassan and Bogdan. Those looking for jobs they are more than well qualified for often change their names to more Swedish sounding names. Hassan becomes Hasse and Bogdan becomes Bengt. This might at least fool the prospective employer on the application form and they may be called to interview. Of a population of just under 9 million, there are 1 million immigrants. Sales of peroxide are unusually high in Sweden.

Nature

The relationship Swedes have with Nature is particularly difficult to explain to a foreigner. Swedes are incredibly knowledgeable about plants, flowers, animals and creepy-crawlies. They not only know the name of the bird, but they can tell you how it sounds in the morning, where it nests and from whence it has migrated. Such is their worship of nature, that it is reflected in their family names. Wouldn’t you like to be called ’Aspengrove’ (Asplund), ’Lilly leaf’ (Liljeblad), ’Flowertwig’ (Blomqvist) and ’Mountain stream’ (Beergström)’

Religion

Swedes gave up being Catholics years ago and adopted Lutheranism. However, always keen on having any excuse not to work, they kept the Catholic holy days and made them holidays; Twelfth Night, All Saints Day, Ascension Day. Twelfth night is logically called ’The eve of the thirteenth day’ in Swedish. All Saints Day is nowadays translated as ’Halloween’ with a Swedish accent, and Ascension Day was once translated by a Swede as ’The day Jesus took a flight to heaven’.

Crime and punishment

Major criminals like those omitting to file their income tax returns or forgetting to pay their bills on time are dealt with severely. Minor criminals like murderers and those convicted of grievous bodily harm are told not to do it again.

Swedish Television

God may be watching you. But I doubt whether he watches Swedish television.
At prime viewing time Swedish television tells you that everything is dangerous to your health. Don’t eat this Don’t drink that, don’t do that either. However, the death rate in Sweden is still 100%.
Most of the money from the television license goes towards staging the Eurovision Song Contest which Sweden insist on winning every third year.

Sport

Swedes excel at sports. There is a nation-wide interest in sports, exercise and outdoor recreation. There are over 22 000 officially registered sports clubs, not taking into account the thousands of local clubs, including those at workplaces. Swedes are justly proud of their famous sportsmen and women - Björn Borg, Ingemar Stenmark, Ingemar Johansson, Annika Sörenstam to name but a few. Their ice-hockey players are so good that most of them have been sold and exported to major teams in the NHL. Swedes are frequently world champions in bandy. Then again, it’s relatively easy to be world champions in a game nobody else has ever heard of.

Swedish sex and sin

There isn’t any.

Vacation

Swedes take the whole summer off work. They have five weeks paid leave which they usually take in July. Once a Swede was told he had only five weeks to live. ’I hope it’s in July’ he said.

Public holidays

Yes, Sweden has its fair share. But they are not enough. ’Swedes are world best’ (one of their favorite phrases) at finding excuses for not being at work. They created the ’squeeze day’, explained once by a Swede as ’a day squeezed in between a holiday and a weekend. We have worked for it, so it’s not a free day really’. Translated this means that if there is a public holiday on, say, the Thursday then they don’t think it’s worth going into work just for one day before they’re off again at the weekend. The Friday, in this case, is a squeeze day. They accumulate time by working four minutes extra every day so they reckon it’s not a holiday but time off in lieu of the overtime. Get it?
If they are lucky, the Swedes can enjoy what can only be described as a ’squeeze week’ during the first week of May. There’s the weekend, then a squeeze Monday as Tuesday is the 1st of May and a public holiday. Hopefully Ascension Day falls on the Thursday so it’s no good going to work on the Wednesday and the Friday is squeezed between Thursday and Saturday and before you know it it’s already the following weekend.

Some Swedish traditional holidays

1.Valborgsmässoafton (Walpurgis night)

This is the evening before the 1st of May public holiday. A metamorphosis occurs. Like a butterfly emerging from months of lonely darkness in its cocoon, Swedes wriggle out into the open, stretch and flap their wings. The winter is officially over, at least according to the calendar, by gathering outdoors and lighting huge bonfires. From now on, Swedes shed their thick, cozy winter attire and put on flimsy, brightly-colored, cotton summer wear. If the Jews are God’s chosen people, then on this night the Swedes are God’s frozen people. Wind, rain, hail and snow abound, so quite often the bonfires don’t have a long life-span. The Swedish calendar is not always in tune with reality.

2. Midsummer

This is celebrated on the weekend coming closest to the real midsummer day, 24th of June. A mass exodus takes place just before with thousands of Swedes evacuating the towns and cities and heading for their weekend cottages in the country. They erect a maypole, erect being the operative word as in fact it is a pagan symbol of fertility. It looks like a long thing with two round dangly bits! They dress it up in leaves and flowers (the maypole, that is) and then spend the afternoon dancing around it pretending to be
small frogs. It’s true.
Swedes eat new potatoes and pickled herring (of course). Before long, it is not only the herring which is pickled as they do end to imbibe large quantities of beer and akvavit. No wonder they dance like frogs afterwards. Another important dish on the menu is fresh strawberries and cream. No foreign watery, tasteless EU-regulated strawberries, but large, curvy, juicy, sweet Swedish ones.

Lucia, 13th of December

Most people have no idea how the Lutheran Swedes came to celebrate the Sicilian Saint Lucia when even the Sicilians Don’t pay her any attention whatsoever. In Swedish homes, hospitals, old-people’s homes, factories and offices and up the High street, Lucia comes to spread light in the deep winter darkness - usually long before dawn, which at this time of year is just before it gets dark again. Little blonde girls, teenage blond girls and not-so-young-any-more blonde Maj-Britt who works in the accounting department, dress up in a full length, white gown with a red ribbon around their waist and become this year’s Lucia. Lucia wears a wreath of lingonberry sprigs on her head and positioned in the wreath are several lit candles. As only one can be Lucia in each procession, the other less fortunate dark-haired girls have to walk behind her acting as some kind of bridesmaid. As Sweden is an extremely egalitarian society, boys (or Per from the purchasing department ) are invited to take part in the procession as ’star boys’. Lucia’s henchmen, sort of.
This festival is typically and uniquely Swedish and the song, surprisingly entitled ’Sankta Lucia’, sung by Lucia and her back up group, brings tears to everyone’s eyes. As indeed it should.

The Right of Common Access

Swedes can be proud of many things. ABBA, tennis players and a variety of pickled herring. One thing that every Swede cherishes very dearly is the right to roam wherever he wishes on open land and to pick flowers, berries and mushrooms in forests and fields and to go swimming and boating in lakes and the sea. You are not allowed to pitch your tent in someone’s back garden and you are not allowed
to pick flowers from someone’s flower beds. Likewise you are not allowed to climb over any fence enclosing a private home and you are certainly not allowed to take growing trees, bushes, bark, leaves, acorns or nuts. However, the right of common access does allow you to swat as many swarms of mosquitoes as is humanly possible - for the common good.

Swedish small talk

Swedes call this ’cold talk’ or ’dead talk’ which more or less sums up their opinion of it. Not being first in the queue when God dished out conversational talent, Swedes limit themselves to one major topic of conversation - the weather. Sweden is so large that it has all kinds of weather at once which is very convenient as there is always something to talk about.

Swedish conversation

When Swedes say something, they mean exactly what they say. No more, no less. There is usually no hidden meaning and they don’t have to read between the lines. There are few fantastic metaphores in daily conversation, and exaggeration, a string of vivid adjectives and enhancing repetitions are often viewed with suspicion. Try retelling something that happened and embroider a little to make the story more stimulating. After a while the Swede will correct you as your version is beginning to stray from what really happened. ’And then there were loads of people who’, ’There were five people’ says Sven. ’And then after
half an hour they came and’, ’20 minutes’ says Sven ’They came after 20 minutes’. Elaborate story-telling has never been possible in Sweden
Swedes are extremely good listeners. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell whether they are thinking about what you said or if they have mentally gone to lunch - but they are listening to every word. The marvelous thing is they don’t interrupt. Interrupting is a sign of bad manners. They patiently wait for their turn to express themselves concisely and precisely. Sometime they have to wait for rather a long time. Especially when meeting with foreigners.
Swedish women sometimes sound as if they have a breathing complaint. When they agree, they breathe in and say ’jahhhh’. Or they inhale and say ’nejhhhh’. They are not about to pass out in an asthma attack. They are just participating in the conversation.
Swedes have a tendency to state the obvious. If you meet an acquaintance in a shop he’ll probably say ’Oh, so you’re out shopping’. Or, if you meet somebody you know out strolling in the countryside he’ll say ’Oh, so you’re out walking’. The temptation is to say ’No, I’m playing the piano’ but don’t. Sarcasm doesn’t go down too well.

Swedish discussion

Being neutral and avoiders of conflict, the Swedes are careful not to express an opinion which may cause heated discussion. Ask a Swede what his opinion is he’ll probably answer ’It depends’. He won’t actually tell you what it depends on as that might lead to a debate and then you have to take sides. Hundreds of years of neutrality has taught him not to take sides - well at least not until he knows who’s going to win.

The Swedish language

’Hej’ - the word for hello and good-bye is the same. It’s difficult to know whether people are coming or going.

’Gift’ - the word for married is the same word as for poison. This probably could explain the high divorce rate.

’Sex’ - the word for six is the same for sex, which gives a ’six-pack’ a whole new meaning.

’Oväder’ - the word for stormy weather is, literally translated, ’unweather’. And I would have thought it was very much weather.

’Sambo’ - you live and sleep together with your partner but are not married, well at least not to that particular partner.

’Särbo’ - you sleep with your partner and then go home to your own bed afterwards.

’A-laget’ - in Swedish, the ’A-team’ is a group of hopeless alcoholics hanging outside the state liquor store. Not the kind you’d want in the national basketball team in other words.

’Osvensk’ - the word ’un-Swedish’ mostly has a positive connotation! A recent book review stated ’It’s an exciting thriller, entertaining, has colorful characters, lots of action and imagination and very un-Swedish to name but a few positive qualities’. It’s unbelievable, but true! Can you imagine a Frenchman using the word ’un-French’ as a positive quality?


Swedish English (Swenglish)

Although the Swedes generally have a very good command of the english language, sometimes they just don’t get it right.

’Please take off your clothes and follow me to the whip room.’
(Translation: May I take your coat and accompany you to the VIP room)

’She’s away with the VD.’
(Translation: She’s away with the Managing Director) (VD =Managing Director)

’His name is Öberg, a zero with two pricks.’
(Translation: The letter ’o’ with two dots = ö) (prickar = dots)

’You’ll have to show your leg before entering’
(Translation: You’ll have to show identification before entering.) (leg = id)

’Please keep hanging on the line’
(Translation: Please continue to hold the line)

’Thank you for the last time’
(Translation: Thank you for your hospitality.)

’Can I follow you to the big mess in Stockholm?’
(Translation: May I come with you to the large fair in Stockholm?) (mässa = fair )

’He has many balls up in the air’
(Translation: He is involved in many different projects.) (att ha bollar i luften = Swedish saying)

A lesson in Swedish

The Swede is a person of few words.

Eng: Excuse me, I didn’t quite catch what you were saying.
Swe: Va? (vah?)
Literal translation: What?

Eng: Sorry for bumping into you like that. So terribly
clumsy of me.
Swe: Oj! (oi!)
Literal translation: Oh!

Eng: It’s you! How lovely to see you!
Swe: Nej, men! (nay men)
Literal translation: No, but!

Eng: How are things with you?
Swe: Annars? (an ass)
Literal translation: Otherwise?

Eng: Excuse me, may I disturb you for a second?
Swe: Du
Literal translation: You

Eng: Could I have a pint of your best bitter please.
Swe: En stor stark
Literal translation: A big strong one

Eng: Shall we treat ourselves and indulge in a schnapps?
Swe: En liten djävul? (en liten yayvull)
Literal translation: A little devil?

However sometimes English is just that bit more concise:

Eng: Mind the gap!
Swe: Tänk på avståndet mellan vagn och plattform när ni
stiger av.
Literal translation: Think of the gap between the carriage
and the plattform when you alight.

Daily Kos is starting to quote me quite a bit . . .

A number of companies made headlines recently by trying to boost their profits through illegal drug marketing schemes, cheating on their taxes or skimping on safety, according to Peter Rost, former vice president of marketing for Pfizer and author of the book "Whistleblower."
Pfizer was recently fined $430 million for attempting to defraud a government program. Schering Plough paid a $500 million fine for manufacturing violations and $345 million for improper marketing of Claritin, an allergy drug, Rost says. The U.S. tax authority, the Internal Revenue Service, has demanded that drug company GlaxoSmithKline pay $7.8 billion in back taxes, while Merck may be facing $2 billion in back tax payments.

Full article.

What really happened with Bextra and off-label marketing inside Pfizer?

Find out in this article by Jim Edwards.

Washington Post: 99.5% probability that Iran vote count is fraud.

And this is how it is calculated.

Ever wondered how email REALLY works?

It may surprise you:

Woman knew her health history included acne and a rapid heartbeat. After she was diagnosed with breast cancer her insurer cancelled her policy.

Story over at NPR.

Pfizer district manager was to be sentenced on June 11 for obstruction of justice: What happened?

A former district sales manager for Pfizer was convicted on March 16, 2009, in federal court of obstruction of justice.

Thomas Farina, 42, of Fairport, NY, was found guilty following a five day trial in Boston.

Prosecutors said evidence presented during the trial proved that in the summer of 2004, Farina caused a sales representative under his direction to alter documents and backdate the alterations on his computer to delete the evidence of the promotion of a drug for uses and dosages for which it was not indicated or approved for promotion by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The evidence demonstrated that Farina instructed his sales representative on how to change the clock and date setting on the computer, and then alter and re-save the documents in order to make the sanitized documents appear to have been last modified at an earlier time.

Sentencing was scheduled for June 11.

But there are no news out there.

Farina faced up to 20 years imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $ 250,000 fine.

Pfizer Executive Sentenced for Off-Label Marketing: USDOJ Press Release Conceals Pfizer Name

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 18, 2009
WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/MA

CONTACT: CHRISTINA DiIORIO-STERLING
PHONE: (617)748-3356
E-MAIL: USAMA.MEDIA@USDOJ.GOV


PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY MANAGER SENTENCED FOR OFF-LABEL MARKETING

BOSTON, MA - A Branchburg, NJ, woman was sentenced today for violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, for marketing the drug Bextra for uses and dosages that were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Acting United States Attorney Michael K. Loucks; Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Susan J. Waddell, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; Leigh-Alistair Barzey, Resident Agent in Charge of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service; Kim A. Rice, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, Metro Washington Field Office, Special Prosecution Staff; Jeffrey Hughes, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations - Northeast Field Office; and Joseph Finn, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General, Boston Field Office, announced today that MARY HOLLOWAY, age 47, of Branchburg, New Jersey, has been sentenced by United States Magistrate Judge Judith Dein to pay a $75,000 fine and twenty-four months of probation after pleading guilty to an Information charging her with distribution of a misbranded drug.

At the plea hearing, prosecutors told the Court that, had the case proceeded to trial the Government’s evidence would have proven, the following:

From approximately November 2001, through April 2005, HOLLOWAY was employed as a Regional Manager at a pharmaceutical company and was responsible for sales in her region of the drug Bextra. Bextra was a Cox-II inhibitor and had been approved in by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November 2001 for the signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis, adult rheumatoid arthritis, at 10 mgs and primary dysmennorhea at 20 mgs, twice a day as needed. In 2001, the FDA specifically denied the request of the pharmaceutical company to approve it for acute pain, including the pain of surgery. The FDA told the pharmaceutical company that it could not approve it for these other indications because the safety in these other uses had not been established. Specifically, the FDA was concerned about the results of a study in which there was an excess of cardiovascular events in patients who had undergone coronary artery bypass graft surgery and used Bextra.

HOLLOWAY was aware of the FDA’s safety concerns, but that she nonetheless had her sales staff of approximately 100 employees sell Bextra for precisely the uses that the FDA refused to approve. For example, HOLLOWAY trained and encouraged her sales teams to promote Bextra by obtaining protocols from doctors that instructed that Bextra be used for the pain of surgery, an unapproved use, and at 20 mgs, an unapproved dose. HOLLOWAY also instructed her staff to market Bextra for use before, during and after surgery to reduce the risk of deep vein thrombosis, which is a form of life threatening blood clots, even though she knew there were no studies showing that Bextra was safe and effective for this use. Finally, HOLLOWAY encouraged her staff to make false safety claims about Bextra in order to sell the drug.

Acting United States Attorney Michael K. Loucks said, “We will continue to hold individuals responsible for their conduct in promoting pharmaceutical drugs outside of the uses for which they have been found to be safe and effective by the United States FDA. The conduct at issue here undermined the FDA’s regulatory scheme and put patients at risk for the purpose of pursing profits for the individual and the pharmaceutical company.”

Bextra was withdrawn from the market in April 2005.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, Special Prosecutions Staff for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Inspector General for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the Office of Inspector General for the United States Postal Service. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sara Miron Bloom and Susan M. Poswistilo of Loucks’ Health Care Fraud Unit.

Reese Witherspoon plays "Pharm Girl" in new movie

Reese Witherspoon proves a "Pharm Girl" at heart

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Reese Witherspoon is going into the pharmaceutical business with Universal Pictures.

The studio is developing "Pharm Girl," an aspirational comedy centring on one woman's odyssey through the drug industry.

"Bad Santa" screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa are writing the screenplay and in talks to direct. Witherspoon is producing via her Type A banner and will play the lead role.

The project concerns a woman who gets a job at a pharmaceutical powerhouse and begins to see the underbelly of the industry as she rises through the company's ranks.

The modern pharmaceutical industry has played a villainous role in a number of Hollywood pics, among them "The Fugitive." Several years ago it was at the centre of a conspiracy in the thriller "The Constant Gardener."

Big news: Obama kills fly

Movie about Pfizer and Viagra salesman based on Reidy's book "Hard Sell"

Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway will do a movie based on former Pfizer sales rep Jamie Reidy’s book “Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman.”

I can't wait to see that one . . . the movie will be called “Love and Other Drugs.”

Much congratulations to my friend Jamie on landing this deal.

This is what Jim Edwards over at BNet writes:

In the book, Reidy claimed he was the company’s No. 1 Viagra salesman, and that he employed a comical variety of unethical tactics to make his sales. Among them:

… he persuaded doctors to attend “Pizza-and Dash” events at which Pfizer would buy doctors’ families fast food in return for face-time with the physician. Reidy used the Pizza-and-Dash outings to collect doctors’ signatures, which he would then use to convince Pfizer he was working when he was actually goofing off.

In another chapter he describes Pfizer’s internal logic for avoiding blame for the deaths of some patients who had taken Viagra. It was the exertion of the sex that killed them, Reidy claimed the company argued, not Viagra.

Reidy was fired as a sales training exec by Eli Lilly when the book was published.

It’s not clear how much internal Pfizer stuff will make it into the movie. While the book focused on the often hilarious nonsense that Reidy had to endure from doctors, colleagues and his employer, the Hollywood Reporter says of the movie:

Gyllenhaal will play the salesman, who begins a relationship with a woman who has Parkinson’s (Hathaway) while on one of his sales calls. Their love story plays out in the political and social context of the time.

Get me rewrite!

Living dangerously

Painting - how difficult can it be? :)

Today's quote from an idiot and the response.

From CNBC, Mad Money:

Jim: I started purchasing Pfizer [PFE 14.76 --- UNCH (0) ] early this year because of the acquisition of Wyeth [WYE 44.69 --- UNCH (0) ]. With the acquisition it was said that PFE would be able to see some great profits and returns from the deal. Now with health care and pharma being on Obama's hit list, how could this impact PFE's stock and will it? Thank you for your time and a great big Army Booyah! --Jerome

Cramer says: “Thank you for serving…Pfizer I just don’t think has anything going for it. I don’t think the merger’s going to matter. I think it’s a deadweight stock, and I don’t want you buying Pfizer.”

Today: Celebrated 50th birthday with classic car show, games at the pool and dinner.

Most scary part . . . many of those "classic cars" like a 1986 Corvette, I used to own and drive back in LA. They even had an old Saab V4. Oh well, I hope I aged slightly better than those cars.

Cuando tu Vas - Chenoa

Quote of the day: "Is there anyone who has any questions about underage females?"

SILVIO BERLUSCONI, Italy's Prime Minister, beginning a press conference in which he promised to resign if caught lying about allegations of an improper relationship with a teenager.

Time initially illustrated the quote with this image, then changed it to another one here . . .

Dance Me To The End of Love - Leonard Cohen

Juanes - Tres

Better version but embedding disabled: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7KQeOvQh0U

Juanes - La Camisa Negra

Ten things I have to do before I turn 50 on May 31.

So I just got the AARP card in the mail and am wondering what I'm about to experience. It is pretty weird this thing, turning 50.

But a guy by the name of Jay McDonald has some advice, here it is:

You've sensed the black bunting and cruel gag gifts dead ahead, the cheerful semi-surprise party of well-meaning younger friends and commiserating older ones who, like you, have decidedly mixed feelings about hitting the big 5-0.

The very least that can be said in favor of reaching the half-century mark is that it carries less angst than the big 3-0, less sting than the big 4-0, and certainly beats the alternative.

After all, you've accomplished far more at this point in your life than at those previous traumatic milestones. Chances are you've found love and married (perhaps more than once), you've raised a family (perhaps more than one), you've settled on what you're going to do when you grow up, and you've probably cobbled together enough assets to make retirement a real possibility.

Love, family, financial security -- what's not to like about turning 50?

Well, the downside is that one of these mornings you're going to wake up and actually be staring at a 50-year-old in the mirror.

The big 5-0, as everyone who has hit it will tell you, is the physical milestone. Somebody cranks up the gravity, makes all the print tiny and turns your favorite foods against you. Your doctor becomes a nag. Your clothes start shrinking. And you forget, but not selectively anymore.

Any day now, that AARP card will arrive in the mail and you'll be officially old. But that doesn't mean you have to go gently into that good night -- not by a long shot. After all, you're a baby boomer. You were born to be wild.

Here are the top 10 things you need to do before you greet the big 5-0:

1. Get lost
Looking for a personal mantra as you prepare to tee off down life's back nine? How about this one: Habits kill. By now, you may have seen more of other parts of the world than you've actually seen of your own hometown because you've been a good little Pythagorean and mastered the straight line between A and B and never got beyond point C.

But now is the time to get lost, at least metaphorically. Take that road you've never taken. Go to work by bus instead of train. Or get really radical, and walk somewhere. Mix it up. And be sure not to plan too much. It takes all the fun out of it.

2. Use the good china
Who doesn't know the frustrating feeling of watching our parents or older relatives deny themselves the pleasure of using fine china, linen, silver and other great things in life? Don't go there.

If you've got the good stuff swaddled in bubble wrap, locked away for safekeeping or displayed in fine glass cabinetry, pull it all out right now. Find the orneriest 3-year-old available and together build a ridiculous lunch of peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches with SpaghettiOs on grandma's finest. You'll be grinning for days.

3. Visit the wonder window
Been a couple decades since your kids were born? Need a double shot of wonder with that latte grande? One of the best free shows on earth is available at the maternity ward of your local hospital. Just drop in and stand at the window.

There's a wonderful charge from being in the presence of newborns, especially when we're feeling the tug of our own mortality. If you are a parent, it can put you in touch with all the reasons you brought your own kids into this world in the first place. That's a pretty nice place to revisit.

4. Lose the locks
Anthropologists are trying to isolate the gene that makes human beings cling against all reason to the hairstyles they had when they bought their first car. What's sadder than a 40-year-old man with a mullet? A 50-year-old with a comb-over or a ponytail, that's what.

At 50, it's time to lose the locks. Guys, give your boyhood barber a farewell tip, find a stylist half your age and get short and modern. Ladies, the '70s called and they want their long hair back. Go bobbed, go gelled, go asymmetrical, go crazy, but go short. You both will look 10 years younger.

5. Treat a stranger to dinner
Let's say you've done pretty well in life, climbed the corporate ladder, made it to the top, love the view. Congratulations. Now what? Compassion for those who didn't catch the same breaks is a pretty good place to start the cool-down from your career marathon.

Try this: The next time you dine out, look for someone who is alone, perhaps sad or troubled or less fortunate than yourself, and surreptitiously pay their waiter for their meal, anonymously. It might make a difference in their life and it will certainly make a difference, for the better, in yours.

6. Upgrade your vices
In the spin-cycle of youth, you wallowed in the shallow end when it came to pursuits of pleasure. You saw Rocky Horror 36 times, traveled with the Dead for a summer (you think), drank anything with an alcohol content and played Trivial Pursuit until your mind turned to cottage cheese. It was easy to waste time when you had so much of it.

Now you need to be a little more selective. Upgrade your vices. Read great books. See great movies. Drink better wines. Catch a live concert, philharmonic this time, now and then and spring for good seats. And spend more time with people who make you laugh. You've had the rest, now go only for the best.

7. Meet the folks
No one can give you a clearer forecast of what's in store for the second half of your life than your parents. If you haven't done so already, make a point to meet the folks on an adult level. As 50 approaches, chances are you are noticing lots in common with them that you can use to open the door to new mature relationships.

It will do wonders for all of you. Ask them about anything and everything they've experienced. You'll need all the gory details, especially the health-related ones, they sheltered you from in your younger days so you'll be able to age like a fine wine instead of a sour grape.

8. Scare yourself
One of the advantages of launching your second childhood now is that you've still got the muscle tone and mobility to truly push the envelope, get the adrenalin roaring and flash-test the old circuitry without winding up in the ER.

What's the scariest thing you always wanted to try? Glacier skiing? Skydiving? Spelunking? Karaoke? Don't just dream about it, get out there and give it a go. Great cocktail stories often involve overcoming fear. Let this be your best one.

9. Get spontaneous
Remember those habits we earlier said are buzz killers? Well, those small, comfortably predictable action sequences actually do serve a purpose. They help guide us subconsciously through our daily existence. Without them, we would spend most of every morning just getting out of the house.

That said, after 50, most of our habits start to turn against us, for good reason: We are no longer the same person who formed them all those years ago. How to kick the ones we no longer need? Get spontaneous, right now. Seek new experiences, new technologies, new points of view, new possibilities. Pursue your bliss and let it guide you to new habits that will serve you better down the stretch.

10. Laugh more
Native American folklore says that the first question we ask upon dying is, "Why was I so serious?"

Life today is full of reasons to scowl, frown, sputter and fume, but you know what? That's just plain defeatism and it only makes you look and feel old. Find things that make you laugh and surround yourself with them.

Set laughter goals: laughing to tears daily; falling-down, rolling, pants-wetting hilarity once a week perhaps. Laughter is your tether to youth, an instant facelift, and the purest appreciation for what a cool ride this really is.

As I read this advice I'm starting to feel like I've been working on all this for the last ten year. Perhaps things won't be so bad after all . . .

WSJ on Health-Care Overhaul: "Ahead of these give-backs, they dramatically raise prices," Dr. Rost says. "They always do that."

MAY 27, 2009
Drug CEOs Switch Tactics on Reform

Pharmaceutical Companies Join Health-Care Overhaul, Hoping to Influence Where Costs Are Cut

By JONATHAN D. ROCKOFF
Drug-company executives are aiming to prevent steep cuts in prescription prices by joining the effort to overhaul the U.S. health-care system.

Their approach contrasts sharply with their behavior 15 years ago, when they helped defeat President Bill Clinton's reform efforts from the outside. "This is not the 1990s, when the industry was playing defense," says John Lechleiter, Eli Lilly & Co.'s chief executive. "We're playing offense. We're at the table."

The pharmaceutical executives are using their new access to try to steer lawmakers away from measures that could reduce drug margins, pressing instead for cost reductions by hospitals and insurers.

In their meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill, as well as in speeches and op-ed articles, industry executives and lobbyists have backed such steps as shifting insurance coverage toward prevention, which could increase sales for heart, diabetes and other drugs that patients take long term.

AstraZeneca PLC Chief Executive David Brennan argues that prescription drugs account for "just about 10% of the overall cost" of health-care spending in the U.S. "That hasn't changed in 40 years," he says, "and right now that is going down."

Instead of worrying about drug prices, Mr. Brennan says that a health-care overhaul should tackle the insurance co-payments that he says deter patients from taking the drugs they need. Reforms, he adds, shouldn't force doctors and patients to choose a drug based on cost if the more expensive treatment would have a better outcome.

The pharmaceutical industry "has a strong interest in working the benefit-design side rather than the price side," says Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere Health, a consulting firm that keeps health-care companies, patient groups and medical foundations abreast of developments in Washington.

Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Jeffrey Kindler says he backs "comprehensive health-care reform in this country" and is willing to make compromises. But he opposes a public insurance plan except for the poor who otherwise can't afford insurance, saying it would crowd out private insurers and take "the form of price controls" that fail to reward companies for their expensive and risky investments in drug development.

Of course, just extending health-insurance coverage to millions of uninsured Americans is likely to benefit drug makers. Les Funtleyder, an industry analyst at Miller Tabak & Co., estimates such a move could increase the $291 billion in annual U.S. prescription-drug sales by $15 billion to $18 billion.

To help accomplish their goals, the drug makers spent $47.4 million on lobbying in the first quarter, up 36% from a year earlier, according to company-disclosure reports filed with Congress and analyzed by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Pfizer Inc. more than doubled its spending on lobbying in the period to $6.1 million.

Earlier this month, drug makers joined doctors, insurers and hospitals in a pledge to rein in health-care cost increases by $2 trillion over the next decade. Merck & Co. Chief Executive Richard Clark, who attended the White House announcement, said that the company was "ready to do our part to achieve" an overhaul.

Nonetheless, the drug makers have been pushing through hefty price increases. Prices for many drugs were up more than 15% in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to data from Credit Suisse.

Pharmaceutical companies say the increases are fair and necessary as drugs mature, but analysts say the companies are trying to eke out as much revenue from the treatments as they can before patents expire and health-care reform drives down prices.

Peter Rost, a former marketing executive at Pfizer who is now an industry critic, says the increases are a way to soften the impact of future price cuts. "Ahead of these give-backs, they dramatically raise prices," Dr. Rost says. "They always do that."

Meanwhile, drug-industry executives worry that an overhaul of the health-care system could lead to too much government intervention. In addition to possibly establishing a government-sponsored insurance plan, lawmakers might give Medicare -- the existing public program for the elderly and disabled -- the authority to negotiate the prices for drugs dispensed through its Part D benefit. That could limit the prices pharmaceutical companies can charge.

Pharmaceutical executives argue that such steps would hamper drug makers' ability to pay for costly research into new treatments. "It would knock our legs out," says Lilly's Dr. Lechleiter.

Linda Douglass, a spokeswoman for the Obama administration, says the administration isn't negotiating with drug companies or other health-care industries. Rather, it is focused on working with lawmakers who are writing legislation and trying to figure out such issues as how to finance an overhaul. Allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of drugs dispensed through the Part D program, for example, "just hasn't come up yet," she says.

But she praises the drug industry for wanting to play a role. The major components of the health-care industry, including pharmaceutical companies, "are agreeing we can no longer live with the status quo, and I can't emphasize enough how important that is because it wasn't that way 15 years ago," she says.

Write to Jonathan D. Rockoff at jonathan.rockoff@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page B1

Merck Propecia Product Director uploaded fart video to YouTube. Then quit.

Very juvenile and not funny video. But I guess seven million viewers disagree with me.



And here is Kevin Nalty, Merck’s consumer product director for Propecia, saying his goodbye from Merck..



BNet writes: Merck Exec Quits After YouTube Gross-Out Video Got Too Much Negative Attention

EXPERT WITNESS: DECEPTIVE OR ILLEGAL MARKETING AND SELLING ACTIVITIES, FAILURE TO TRAIN, SUPERVISE, COMMUNICATE AND WARN ABOUT SIDE-EFFECTS

Dr. Peter Rost is a former Pfizer Marketing Vice President providing services as an expert witness on pharmaceutical marketing. He has worked for several major plaintiff firms (references available) on cases related to antipsychotics, antidepressants, pain killers, antivirals, injectables (as well as other areas), testifying about deceptive, improper, or illegal marketing and selling activities as well as failure to train, supervise, communicate and warn about risks or side-effects.

PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING EXPERT WITNESS BIOGRAPHY AND CV

Click on Dr. Peter Rost CV (left) to view full size.

Peter Rost, M.D. is a former Vice President, Marketing for the drug company Pfizer.

Prior to his work for Pfizer, Dr. Rost was a Vice President, Marketing and Managing Director for Wyeth, responsible for the Nordic region in Europe.

Dr. Rost has been featured on numerous radio and television broadcasts, among them “60 Minutes,” and in hundreds of newspaper articles, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Fortune.

Dr. Rost is also the author of one fiction and three non-fiction books, among them “Killer Drug, “The Whistleblower—Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman,” and “Emergency Surgery.”

He has written op-eds for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and dozens of other major newspapers and is also a writer for Brandweek, Realtid and Läkemedelsvärlden.

Dr. Rost has also testified before the U.S. Senate, as well as many state congresses and conducted several press conferences with U.S. Senators, Members of U.S. Congress, and State Governors. He has also been key note speaker for many industry and political organizations.

Recent news on Dr. Rost available from Google News.

PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING EXPERT WITNESS PHONE & EMAIL

Dr. Rost e-mail

Phone: (973) 273-4668

EXPERT WITNESS SERVICES

Dr. Rost is available to review both Plaintiff and Defendant cases.

Dr. Rost has experience with class action, product liability, false claims/qui tam & criminal cases. He is available for general litigation support, medical and marketing record review, depositions, expert reports and trial testimony.

Areas in which Dr. Rost performs expert witness testimony: Patent Infringement, Pharmaceutical Marketing, Drug Product Liability, Drug Marketing and Promotion, Drug Sales.

CLIENT LIST

• SPEECHES (not complete list): National Venture Capital Association, U.S. Senate, Governor of Indiana, Governor of Montana, Maryland Senate, Vermont Senate, New York City Council, Southern Medical Association, ESOMAR, NC Pharmacy Association, The Prescription Access Litigation Project, Minnesota Senior Federation, Danske Bank, Sveriges Riksdag, Sveriges Radio Sommar, Svenska Nyhetsbrev AB, Entreprenörsdagen, Stockholms Läns Landsting, Läkemedelskommittén i Jämtlands län, Gräv 08-Undersökande Journalister, Västsvenska Industri- och Handelskammaren, Sveriges Läkarsällskap, Svenska Neurologföreningen, Hjärntrusten Management AB.

• WRITING: The New York Times, Brandweek, Los Angeles Times, NJ Star-Ledger, NJ Voices, Realtid, Läkemedelsvärlden

• LEGAL CONSULTING/EXPERT WITNESS: Client list available upon request. Personal references available from major plaintiff firms. Example:

DR. ROST MEDIA

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S CHIEF OF STAFF, RAHM EMANUEL: "I WOULD LIKE TO NOMINATE DR. ROST FOR THE GUTS OF THE YEAR AWARD"

DR. ROST ON FOX NEWS: DISCUSSING VYTORIN ON "MONEY FOR BREAKFAST"

DR. ROST ON AMERICAN LAW JOURNAL TELEVISION

Taped at the Drexel Unviersity Anthony J. Drexel Picture Gallery in Philadelphia, attorney host Christopher Naughton welcomes attorneys Stephen Sheller of Sheller, P.C., Raymond Williams of DLA Piper and former pharmacuetical executive Dr. Peter Rost.

"The American public doesn't trust drug companies," says Rost, "and they have to do more than rehash old guidelines."

The American Law Journal broadcasts every Sunday night at 6:30 p.m. on CN8, The Comcast Network and is available free on demand--click here for the website.



Dr. Rost on Leonard Lopate Show, New York Public Radio. Streaming audio here.
Dr. Rost on 60 Minutes, "Insider's Rx For Drug Costs." Streaming video here.
Dr. Rost on ABC/Safran download here.
Dr. Rost on Barry Gordon/From left field download here.

Dr. Rost on CNN:

Dr. Rost on FOX News:


Dr. Rost on Capitol Hill:


Dr. Rost and Maria Bartiromo:


PHARMACEUTICAL EXECUTIVE

Click on images to read.

BRANDWEEK

Click on images to read.




FORTUNE

Click on images to read.



Click on images to read:

THE DAY: "PFIZER WHISTLEBLOWER IN RUNNING FOR TOP FDA POST"

Former Pfizer VP Rost finds support for job

By Lee Howard
Published on 12/6/2008
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.

Dr. Rost on "Agenda," Swedish Television, speaks about Pfizer's Lipitor.

If you speak Swedish and want to check out the segment about pharmaceuticals on "Agenda," you can start viewing about 37 minutes into the show.

Guernica: An interview with Peter Rost"

June 2008
Healthscare

An interview with Peter Rost

Four years ago, Peter Rost was vice president of marketing at Pfizer, the world's largest drug company, when he posted a book review on Amazon.com. The review was for Dr. Marcia Angell’s The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What To Do About It. Rost wrote: "Drug companies are their own worst enemies. They have antagonized grannies all over ... with their work to stop reimportation of cheaper drugs into the US, a practice that has been in place for many years in Europe."

The review changed Rost's life. USA Today was the first to take notice. A slew of newspaper stories were followed by appearances on 60 Minutes and before Congress, where he attacked the drug industry’s claim that re-importation (buying less expensive pharmaceuticals from other countries) was unsafe. But it wasn’t just controversial practices like re-importation that Rost began speaking out against. He also spoke out about illegal practices, filing Qui-Tam suits (also known as False Claims or "whistleblower" suits) against Pfizer for the off-label marketing of Genotropin, a human growth hormone, and Wyeth, his previous employer, where he alleged tax fraud.

In just months, Rost went from anonymous corporate executive to Big Pharma’s number one whistleblower. But his speaking out proved to be an act of self-immolation, banishing him from an industry he had worked in for almost 20 years. According to Rost, Pfizer retaliated by removing all of his responsibilities and isolating him before finally cutting him loose six months after his 60 Minutes segment aired—which prompted Rost to file another suit, this one for wrongful termination. Jobless, Rost turned to writing.

In 2006, he published the first of two books critical of the pharmaceutical industry. The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman was an autobiographical expose that recounted Rost's days at Pfizer and his attempts to speak out against the illegal and unethical behavior he says he witnessed there. In 2007, he released Killer Drug, a novel about a fictional drug company called Xenal, which develops a biological weapon for the military. He also keeps a blog and has done stints as a blogger/columnist for both The Huffington Post and Brandweek. And he recently launched another career as a litigation consultant on drug marketing issues. While Rost's critics have attached selfish motives to his whistleblowing—he seeks to make a fortune through litigation, he's a publicity hound—his allegations continue to be proven true. One industry insider summed him up this way: "Rost is a bit of a carnival act, but he's not a liar."

—Jake Whitney for Guernica

Guernica: Take us through your last days at Pfizer.

Peter Rost: Well, Pfizer kept me isolated—there were literally construction crews tearing down walls around me—and they told me that I didn’t have any formal responsibility. Nobody at all contacted me except an occasional lawyer or HR person who would tell me I had nothing to do. I was outside the country at a drug reimportation seminar in Costa Rica when the NY Times and other news organizations called and asked for a comment. I didn’t know what they were talking about. It turned out I had finally been fired but Pfizer hadn’t been able to find me. That happened November 30, 2005. When I got home there was an envelope from Pfizer taped to my front door. So somebody from Pfizer had been here. That’s when I started speaking out more and talking about what had been going in Pharmacia and Pfizer. Prior to that I had only spoken about reimportation in general. I hadn’t spoken about anything specific going on inside Pharmacia/Pfizer.

Guernica: By speaking out, you mean publicly? Because you had already filed a Qui Tam suit while you were with Pharmacia.

Peter Rost: Yeah. I had filed the suit after I had informed [Pfizer management] about different issues on several occasions and they were either not receptive or they ignored me. Pfizer managed to get the suit dismissed initially—a year and a half or two years ago. Then we appealed and won. I think we have a very good chance of prevailing and the suit proceeding ahead. We have already been partly proven right since Pfizer was forced to pay a $34 million fine in April 2007. They plead guilty to illegal marketing the way I had described it, which was quite nice because they had basically been telling the world that I was bullshitting. So they plead guilty to illegal marketing, but not that the government would have been fraudulently paying false claims. That’s the other part of this litigation and that’s what we’re moving forward with. We’re also moving forward with the wrongful termination suit.

"Only an idiot would want to lose a base pay of $250,000-plus per year in order to maybe "win" a lawsuit that will almost always only pay dimes on the dollar..."

Guernica: Your critics accuse you of being a publicity hound. They say these lawsuits—and your whistleblowing, in general—have been more about seeking fame and big financial settlements than helping people. What do you say to them?

Peter Rost: My critics are idiots. Only an idiot would want to lose a base pay of $250,000-plus per year in order to maybe "win" a lawsuit that will almost always only pay dimes on the dollar versus real losses many, many years later. Pfizer can easily drag out the entire process for close to a decade even if, and when, I win. You gotta be real dumb if you get into that voluntarily. As for "fame" and being a "publicity hound," I didn't really have a choice when Pfizer called 60 Minutes, The New York Times, and the others to tell them that they'd fired me. Normally people in litigation stay mum, because that's good legal strategy; in this case I was forced to respond. Before that I did speak out about reimportation, and funny thing is perhaps it has had an impact. Pfizer's CEO is now a die-hard democrat and the republican presidential candidate wants reimportation. It only took me four years to be right on that one!

Guernica: At the end of The Whistleblower, you offer an extensive list of recent drug company corruption. It’s a surprisingly large list. What do you think it is about this industry that makes companies break the law so often?

Peter Rost: I think, number one, because it is highly regulated, so there are lots of laws that can potentially be broken. And I think it’s an industry that... I’m not sure if it’s an industry that’s more corrupt than other industries, but there is more regulation and there is a higher price when something untoward happens. When somebody cheats in this industry, lots of people die. If somebody cheats in another industry, you’ll get a product malfunction or whatever; but you don’t normally have disastrous consequences. So that means there is probably more focus on these issues in this particular industry.

Guernica: As there should be...

Peter Rost: As there should be, absolutely. I think we’re still seeing just a tiny percentage of crimes being prosecuted. We’re seeing just the really easy cases. If you look at the statistics in terms of what really brings in the big bucks to the government—which is the False Claims Act, or Qui Tam cases—the government only intervenes in something like 10 or 15 percent of them. In the cases where the government doesn’t intervene, about 90 percent of them fade away. Whereas in 90 percent of the cases when the government intervenes they do recoup a penalty. But I think it’s clear that Congress is not all that interested in expanding the resources to fighting this. Because, of course, you have the same companies giving campaign contributions to these politicians. So in a way, it’s like the old Russia; where the Russians used to say: "You pretend to pay us and we’ll pretend to work." Here it’s like, "We pretend to chase you, and you pretend to follow the laws." It’s the same thing; it’s a game. A significant part is for show.

Guernica: Also in The Whistleblower, you have a chapter called "Sexual Liasons." In it you discuss rumors of sexual affairs among Pfizer management, which you say you heard about through colleagues and former Pfizer employees. Given the serious issues that you were trying to draw attention to by your speaking out—reimportation, illegal marketing, tax fraud—why did you include a chapter that some might consider petty or beside-the-point?

Peter Rost: These issues, if true, could be an indication of violations of company policy. Consider that the Boeing CEO was fired for the same alleged policy violations and that several other CEO's have also been impacted or terminated, so this is not petty or beside-the-point; it is serious.

At a minimum, the fact that these issues were brought up repeatedly by Pfizer employees show a serious internal disrespect for management. Please also note that virtually no one from Pfizer management at the time these allegations were made remains with the company today, four years later.

"It is scary how many similarities there are between this industry and the mob."

Guernica: You’ve described the pharmaceutical industry as mob-like. What did you mean by that?

Peter Rost: It is scary how many similarities there are between this industry and the mob. The mob makes obscene amounts of money, as does this industry. The side effects of organized crime are killings and deaths, and the side effects are the same in this industry. The mob bribes politicians and others, and so does the drug industry—which has been proven in different cases. You could go though a 10-point list discussing similarities between the two. The difference is, all these people in the drug industry look upon themselves—well, I’d say 99 percent, anyway—look upon themselves as law-abiding citizens, not as citizens who would ever rob a bank. Not as citizens who would ever go out and shoplift. And the individuals who run these companies would probably not do such things. However, when they get together as a group and manage these corporations, something seems to happen. Just look at all of these billion-dollar fines—Schering Plough, I think is in the lead now with $1.2 or $1.3 billion in fines; and number two is Bristol-Myers Squibb. It’s pretty scary that they’re committing crimes that cause [the government] to levy those enormous amounts of fines against them. So there’s something that happens to otherwise good citizens when they are part of a corporation. It’s almost like when you have war atrocities; people do things they don’t think they’re capable of. When you’re in a group, people can do things they otherwise wouldn’t, because the group can validate what you’re doing as okay.

Guernica: Do you think this kind of groupthink is more prevalent in the pharmaceutical industry?

Peter Rost: It’s hard to tell. I’ve only worked in the drug industry so I don’t know about the others. But it’s been the drug industry and the defense industry that have been getting hit with the most fines. But it is mainly the drug industry today. I think there are so many things one could do wrong—opportunities for one to cheat—in the drug industry. You know, if you build a car and you cut corners, you’re going to have a bad-quality car and the Japanese are going to take away your market. But in the drug industry, that’s not how it works. You get a situation like the ENHANCE trial with Schering Plough [The ENHANCE trial was supposed to show that Schering Plough’s cholesterol-lowering drug Vytorin, which is made up of both Zocor and Zetia, was better at reducing plaque in the arteries than Zetia alone. But, after an infamous two-year delay, the results ended up showing just the opposite]. The only thing that happened there was that Fred Hassan [CEO of Schering Plough] made a $13 million bonus that he wouldn’t have received if he released the data earlier. So, for the individual managers, there is very little downside to cheating.

Guernica: You said one similarity between the drug industry and the mob was that in both the side effects are "killings and deaths." As that pertains to the drug industry, I’m assuming you mean in unintentional deaths resulting from unforeseen side effects—unlike the mob, which intentionally kills people.

Peter Rost: Clearly, the drug industry doesn’t want to kill people. But at the same time, I’m not sure if it’s always completely unintentional. Yeah, they don’t want to kill people because it’s bad for business, right. But if you look at a number of these cases where people inside the company knew they had problems. If you look at Merck with Vioxx, for example; if you look at Bayer and the lipid-lowering drug they had that caused liver failure, Baycol. Those guys knew that these drugs were causing major problems. And they knew these problems resulted in serious side effects, including death. Yet they kept on selling the drugs. So is that intentional or not?

Guernica: In your 2007 book, Killer Drug, you have a character named Torrance who’s the head of security at a fictional drug company called Xenal. Torrance is an extremely shady character who won’t hesitate to murder enemies of the company. The book is a novel, of course, but did you come across anyone in your career who gave you the feeling that he could possibly act like Torrance?

Peter Rost: The book is fiction. But it is using some of what I’ve seen and experienced, and taking some of the different people and putting them in a thriller environment. I’m not aware of individuals conducting themselves the way Torrance does. At the same time, I am aware that the kind of background he has is very common in the drug industry for someone who is heading up security. Pfizer has a former FBI agent, John Theriault, heading up its security department. And he has lots of law enforcement officers working under him. We have to recognize that these big companies are all building small paramilitary organizations inside the companies that answer to no one except the company itself. Look at Hewlett Packard, how they abused security consultants by getting phone records and information about journalists... and you know we only know a tiny fraction about what really happens—we only find out when these companies happen to get caught. It shows that there aren’t really any limits to what big companies—in the drug industry and others—will do.

Guernica: You look at movies like The Constant Gardener and The Fugitive, which have drug companies as villains, and then there’s Killer Drug. Why does this industry have such a bad reputation?

Peter Rost: It is unnerving, especially considering how important the industry is. You look at how these companies have behaved. Usually they transform to do whatever is best for the company. The chemical company that made the poison gas used in the concentration chambers, Zyklon B, became a drug company. They are now trying to disavow that as part of their heritage. IG Farben was the company. And one of their subsidiaries became a couple of the German drug companies—Bayer and some others. They now claim that they weren’t actually the legal entity, so there is debate over it, but I believe they paid some money to the victims. So most of these companies are going to do whatever it takes to survive under their current political management: If it’s democracy fine; if it’s not democracy, they’re going to play along. It’s very amoral.

Guernica: What specific industry changes would you like to see? Should anything be done about the way drugs in this country are tested? For instance, I understand new drugs only have to be proven more effective than placebos, not more effective than existing drugs. Should that be changed? And how do you feel about TV drug ads?

Peter Rost: In Europe, new drugs are generally tested against existing drugs. TV drug ads, the direct-to-consumer ads, I was originally in favor of, but now I think the reality is that they’re a disservice to consumers. As far as changing the industry, quite frankly I’m pretty cynical. You get new regulations, you get new rules, but then you get the same type of behavior again and again. Yes, fines and deterrents work because companies don’t want to be embarrassed. But I’m not sure how much will really change. I read a book by a whistle-blower at Roche, Roche Versus Adams by Stanley Adams. It was chilling, because many of the same things that I have revealed about fraud within these companies, and other ways they operate: it was the same stuff, the same things, and the book was written 25 years ago. When I read the book, I was like, "You know what; nothing much really changes." Thirty years from now people will be having the same discussions you and I are having today. I do think the press can change things, to an extent. That’s pretty much the only way. But then again, I read this book and I thought, "Things aren’t changing very much."

"We have to recognize that these big companies are all building small paramilitary organizations inside the companies that answer to no one except the company itself."

Guernica: You mentioned the direct-to-consumer ads—the TV drug ads—and you said you once were in favor of them but not anymore. Why?

Peter Rost: Basically I’m in favor of the free market, free information, letting people make their own decisions while minimizing any cumbersome regulations. But I think there is a reason doctors are the ones deciding treatments. And that is because they’ve had years of schooling. It certainly doesn’t help anyone to dump 30-second commercials on people who have no idea about anything they see in them and then they go to their doctors, who often give them any drug they want. That’s how we got the Vioxx debacle. In other countries it wasn’t as bad. [Only the U.S. and New Zealand allow direct advertising of pharmaceuticals to consumers.] So these ads don’t really help patients. There was a study done that was published in the Washington Post a few years ago where they had actors going into doctors’ offices pretending to have depression. Most of the actors who pretended to have depression and asked for Paxil got it. But the scary part is that a lot of the actors who did not exhibit signs of depression but asked for Paxil also got it. The numbers were pretty scary.

Guernica: As a native of Sweden, you’ve had firsthand experience with two very different kinds of healthcare systems. Which works better?

Peter Rost: When I was a doctor in Sweden, I didn’t like socialized medicine. I thought it was terrible. I really did. Because of the big bureaucracy, the long lines for certain procedures; it's not really service-oriented. I just didn’t think it worked very well. And then I came over here and saw how things worked—or didn’t work. (Laughter.) And I saw it was even worse. So it’s really like choosing between two evils. But in the end, you just have to be a smart buyer. If you look at the costs of the US healthcare system—it’s two to three times as high per person as any other place in the Western world. It’s a complete waste of money. The US can have shoddy care and the US can have the best care in the world. It depends on things like where you go, whether you’re lucky or not, if you know what you’re doing, if you’re on the right HMO, and so on. The bureaucracy here is even worse than it is in the socialized systems, which are really unbureaucratic, comparatively speaking, when you try to deal with an HMO and getting claims approved and hospital billing systems; it’s just a mess. The movie Sicko describes it pretty accurately. Although I would add that Michael Moore sees things through rose-colored glasses when it comes to the British, French and Canadian systems. But yes, overall, we would be better off with universal healthcare.

Guernica: Do you think the US will ever move to a universal system?

Peter Rost: Not in the next 30 years. But you never know. Perhaps fifty years from now this system will simply come crashing down under its own weight. But considering the money that people can make here—from doctors to insurance companies to HMOs to hospitals—the way the political system works here, these groups have so much power, it’s going to be a very hard system to change.

Guernica: Does that mean you’d consider a move back to Europe, or do you plan to stay in the U.S. for the rest of your life?

Peter Rost: I will go wherever somebody gives me a decent job to do. I’m flexible.

Guernica: On that note, how has your transition to author/blogger/journalist/legal consultant worked out?

Peter Rost: Things have worked out relatively well. Basically, I’m trying to be as smart as I can about it. So far, the book sales have helped create some attention around what I've been trying to do lately [writing expert reports for law firms on pharmaceutical marketing issues]. And that has really generated interest from these law firms. There’s no question that in the U.S. working on the legal side of things offers a lot more money than book sales do. But books are a good promotional vehicle. So it all works together.

Guernica: Do you have any regrets about speaking out?

Peter Rost: Not really. It’s been quite entertaining to do this. You know, I could have simply blown the whistle internally and stayed quiet otherwise. But since I spoke up, I think more people may have learned about the issues involved. I guess you’ll have to ask me ten years from now if it was the right thing to do. (Laughter.) As far as the attention goes, the media is so fragmented now... quite frankly, the only time people ever recognized me on the street was for a few weeks after my 60 Minutes segment. Another reason I’m not very well known is because people in the US don’t read newspapers. I don’t think any of my neighbors get newspapers. People don’t read anything. They don’t even watch news these days. They watch football. Yes, everybody in the drug industry knows about me and the issues I’ve spoken about. But the general population, they have no idea what’s going on. So generally speaking, the attention has been fine. I was trying to get people to wake up about these issues. I figured I didn’t really have anything to lose. I had hoped to affect things internally and eventually move up into a position where I could create change and have an impact. I realized this was my last shot to do something. I can’t complain.

[The interview was not taped and Guernica has modified or shortened some quotes. Dr. Rost did not review any part of the article for accuracy before publication.]

Facts and conclusions.

What pharma company did this sales rep work for?

Listen to what she said about flirting with old doctors . . .

At one point, Corinne insisted, “I have no moral compass.” The most damning illustration has to do with her (now former) job as a pharmaceutical sales rep, where she said she knowingly sold drugs to physicicans that she knew would kill people. “Selling drugs is a lie. I sold drugs that I knew damn well—I sold Vioxx for Merck before it got taken off the market for killing people. I knew damn well it was dangerous; I went around telling them to write it. There’s a lot of serious lying I’ve done in my life,” she said.

That’s okay, Corinne told me, because “I’m doing a job. For me, in that case, Merck told me to go out and sell drug even though I had hesitation about it. It’s not for me to say. … Don’t listen to me. Read your fucking journals. Why the fuck are you listening to your rep? Just because I’m pretty? You think I know more about the drug? No.”

EXPERT WITNESS PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING

Peter Rost, M.D., is a former Pfizer Marketing Vice President providing services as an expert witness, speaker and writer. According to Fortune "[Rost] is a force to be reckoned with. And he is part of a larger phenomenon that is forcing Big Pharma into a new era of accountability." Dr. Rost is the author of "KILLER DRUG" and "THE WHISTLEBLOWER, Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman."

Bob Lutz and the GM Volt. I want one.