Brandweek: "Could Anna Nicole Smith's Death Boost Peter Rost's Case Against Pfizer?"

BrandweekNRX

By Jim Edwards

Could Anna Nicole Smith's Death Boost Peter Rost's Case Against Pfizer?

I can't believe I am typing these words, but ... Given that the coroner today said that human growth hormone was found in Anna Nicole Smith's body, could that assist former Pfizer vp Peter Rost in his jihad against Pfizer?

For those of you late to class: Rost sued Pfizer when the company failed to respond to his complaints that Genotropin, the brand Pfizer acquired in the Pharmacia merger, was being marketed off-label to healthy people for vanity purposes.

A Massachussetts judge kicked Rost's whistleblower suit out of court, and the feds officially declined to show an active interest. But Rost recently appealed the judge's decision on the grounds that in order to show he has a case he would have to file confidential patient data in court—which, in a classic Catch 22, is against the law.

The feds perked up again when they saw Rost's appeal, and asked for time to file their own brief. Rost suspects that the DOJ suspects that if the ruling stands it will knock out any other pharma whistleblower case that relies on patient data. The feds likely don't want that because it would make it virtually impossible to bring a whistleblower case without violating patient data privacy.

Anyway, to bring this full circle—given that Smith was using HGH, that almost certainly means she was abusing it, says Rost (it's indicated for dwarfism and various GH deficiencies, not weight problems).

And given that her death has now highlighted the prevalence of HGH abuse (check it out on Google here), could this be the extra fact that tips the appeals court to overturn the decision and allow Rost's suit to proceed?

You can't make this stuff up. Perhaps this is the ending Rost needs for his alleged movie?