Federal breast-feeding campaign resulted in LESS breast-feeding.

That is after the campaign was changed according to the wishes of the formula industry.

Read about this disgusting story here.

The Mayan Sacrifice.

She screamed, high and loud; an anguished last cry for help. Strong hands pushed her down on the hot rock and she tried to wring herself free. She couldn’t. One man held her right arm in a painful grip; another held her left arm, a third man sat on her right leg and the fourth held her left leg in an iron grasp.

The man with the drum increased the tempo.

Boom, boom, boom.

The noise made her sick and the hot stone almost fried her back. She screamed out loud again, asking for mercy, for pity, and for help.

Then, the medicine man stepped forward and tore off the small piece of cloth that covered her. She cringed and wriggled, but to no avail. She finally lay there, stark naked, except for her blue body paint. The two men holding her arms stretched them up and out as far as they could and the men holding her legs did the same. Utter terror filled her mind, she tried to struggle, but was no match against the overpowering muscles of four men.

Now they are going to do it, rape me or kill me or both . . .

A shadow abruptly covered her face as one man bent forward and pulled a noose over her head and tightened it around her neck. With a rapid twist the man fastened the noose by pulling it down through a hole in the rock below her head, which forced her neck back and down, until she was looking at the sunset upside down. She shrieked again, but her screams were masked by the rapidly beating drum.

Boom, boom, boom, boom.

She heard more footsteps approaching and then suddenly cold water poured over her naked body. Each drop felt as cold as ice and stung her skin. She gulped as water streamed down her face and sizzled when it hit the hot stone.

Then the drum stopped beating and she felt the sharp edge of a knife against her chest. This is it.


From Killer Drug, by Peter Rost.

Would you suck on this bong in a restaurant? One CEO, paid $200 million last year, thought you would.

Story over at BrandweekNRX.

Drug companies caught redhanded altering Wikipedia.

Want to know what everyone else is reading on BrandweekNRX today?

Go here.

There is a reader tsunami coming by to this post.

Pretty funny, actually.

John Mack has abstained from mentioning my name for a full three days now, which is pretty much a record.

Meanwhile, a relatively unknown little blog calling itself Pharm-Aid is trying to fill the void by tracking my book sales.

The post is actually pretty funny.

It is still vacation time, so "Killer Drug" has so far only been promoted on my blog, not a cent in marketing yet; not even a press release.

So based on the results to the left, I guess I should celebrate today . . .

The pharma side.

Don't miss the deep end of pharma. Only on Impactiviti.

The air gun.

When the light turned green Papadimitriou shrugged and gunned the BMW. The truck roared its engine and cut in behind him. Papadimitriou didn’t have any way of seeing that the young man in back had stood up and now leaned forward, steadying his elbows against the cab roof. In his hands he aimed a gleaming, chrome air gun.

What happened next was a complete surprise to Papadimitriou. He felt a horrifyingly painful sting at the nape of his neck. He smacked at whatever had caused the pain and felt something feathery fall down along the back of his spine. Papadimitriou’s little Beamer swerved dangerously back and forth as he tried to get rid of the object that had caused such a throbbing twinge. All he could sense with his hand was a small bump below his hairline.

***

Multiple spasms ripped through Papadimitriou’s body, and his body didn’t obey any of the commands from his brain. As the BMW flew off the roadway, Papadimitriou felt his eyes nearly popping out of his head. The pretty little BMW carried his incapacitated body up into the sky as if it had been thrust into the heavens by a gigantic slingshot.

His eyes fixed on the gush of bright red and purple mixed into the gray sky. A sliver of gold appeared, as the sun’s last rays worked their way through the edges of the clouds that were layered onto the horizon like soft cotton balls cushioning fragile leaves of gold parchment. The source of this kaleidoscope of colors was no longer visible, only the reflections left behind.

Papadimitriou floated in the air, his vehicle suspended between heaven and earth. He experienced an illusion of weightlessness that was as close as any human could ever come to this exhilarating feeling without leaving the earthly atmosphere. The only constraint that denied his body the right to float freely was his tightly fastened seat belt.

From Killer Drug, by Peter Rost.

What's up here?

From Cafe Pharma today:

Dear Merck Exec's, FDA, OIG, & Peter Rost:You might be interested to know that the current HIV sales team is pre-promoting Integrase and running around with competitor PI's making comparative claims! FYI! Let's just see how the new legal executive management responds toward doing the right thing. P.S. If your that worried about maraviroc, you must really have some skeletons in your closet about Integrase. Good luck at the FDA hearings and addressing all those questions about resistance.

The canister in Jennifer's room.

The first man opened the air conditioning vent and placed a small metal canister with a trigger mechanism inside the duct. The canister looked like a large hairspray bottle from the 60s. Attached to it were a light sensor and a small radio transmitter with a battery.

He whispered in an ancient, indigenous language. “I’m activating this thing. Turn off all the lights. We don’t want this going off too early.”

***

She stood and turned on the light in the bathroom. It wasn’t very bright, but it lit up the bedroom and some of the light also fell on the air conditioning vent. The room felt hot. For some reason the air conditioning wasn’t cooling too well. She cranked it up to maximum, using the digital dial on the wall.

The cold air came rushing in and created thin vapors at the exhaust vent. Hidden deep inside the air conditioning vent sat the small metallic container. The light triggered a simple photocell and a clear mist sprayed from the pressurized metal container. At the same time, the radio transmitters sent a signal to a group of very anxious men not far away. They had cursed that Jennifer had brought a man to her room, but they’d waited patiently. Now they’d only have to wait another half hour and everyone in the room would be deeply sedated.

From Killer Drug, by Peter Rost.

Test: Are you a psychopath?

Click for psychopath test.

Belly-up: Med-Chatter

Med-chatter was a place that aggregated all pharma blogs, ranked most popular pages, and so on. They are no more. Click on the link if you want to buy the site.

What happened to Jennifer Klum, when she disappeared from Ritz-Carlton Cancun?

He walked over to the terrace and slid open the heavy glass door. The wet heat pummeled his body and he was reminded that his jeans would have to come off right away if he were going to survive outside. He looked down onto the snow-white beach and the well-manicured recreation area.

Blue umbrellas dotted the area around the outdoor restaurant; several amoeba-shaped swimming pools covered the rest of the grounds.

Weatherworn permanent cabanas that resembled straw huts lined the beach.

The view was finished off by hundreds of pink-skinned doctors lounging, drinking, swimming, and ensuring that they’d be in perfect shape for their upcoming scientific meeting.

Among the people a very graceful woman stood out, reminding Alex of a swan who looked like she didn’t quite belong among all these ducks. Jennifer Klum moved along the beach greeting doctors, quite oblivious to the attention she received.

Deep in thought, he went back inside and closed the door behind him.

What else could go so right—or so wrong? He knew his mind was messed up and he wasn’t feeling anything like his old self. Not by a long shot. That was a combination that could lead him into trouble.

From Killer Drug, by Peter Rost.

Counterfeit BMW

OK, we all know that China knocks off pretty much everything.

Like drugs and fake Viagra.

But now they're moving into the big league . . . knocking off cars. Below is the original BMW X5 and the Chinese copy.

Guess which one is which?



And there's more . . .

BMW is going hysterical, according to Forbes.

They will sue anyone who tries to import the fake BMW to Germany.

Karl Schloessl, the owner of independent importer China Automobile Deutschland said he knew nothing of the legal action, but said it might well help sales of the model.

We think Karl is right.

From 30 to 166 in a few hours.

Pharma Giles made his debut on #30 of the Healthcare 100 last week. That was great news, and I kind of hoped my own ranking would jump higher than #36, when I compared our Technorati rankings and found some funny numbers.

That didn't happen.

Instead whatever bug existed appears to have been corrected and Giles today landed on #166.

Be that as it may, Pharma Giles is still the funniest pharma blog out there. Don't miss it.

As for that other blog I'm writing, here's what is going on with that one.

The Blog Stalker

I thought it was over . . . but no, John Mack just did another post about . . . me.

So, here is a graphic representation of how many posts John Mack has written about "Peter Rost" and my blogging on his blog the Pharma BlogoSphere, during the month of August, compared to the number of posts he managed to write without mentioning my name.

One picture says more than . . . well you know,

Clearly, if it wasn't for me, John Mack wouldn't have anything to write about.

Of course, there is a word for John's arbitrary ranking of my posts (pharma, self promotion, and fluff) in his self-proclaimed role as Blogging Judge, and incessant fixation on anything I do: John has become the BLOG STALKER.

This is not a healthy thing, and I've decided to try to help John. So I'll stop blogging for a couple of days. If John experiences withdrawal symtoms, I strongly recommend medical treatment.

And John, I've got a big, mean dog guarding my house.

Is something out of whack with the Healthcare 100 blogs?

Or am I simply missing something . . . I started checking the Healthcare 100 rankings, going first to my own blogs:

If we look just at Technorati ranking we get following results:
Question Authority Technorati Rank 23,674 which gives a 17 on Top 100
BrandweekNRX Technorati Rank 63,488 which gives a 13 on Top 100

So far so good.

But then if I compare these numbers with other blogs, things start to look weird:

PharmaGiles Technorati Rank 177,881 which gets a 18 (doesn't make sense, should be lower number than the two blogs above) on Top 100

Compare with HealthcareRenewal, Technorat Rank 38,561, which only gets a Top 100 rank of 15, and clearly is ranking higher on Technorati than PharmaGiles.

Stayin Alive gets Technorati Rank 4,551 which gives a high 25 (makes sense based on ranking), the only problem is that most blogs linking to this blog are SPAM BLOGS, check it out!!!

Same thing with HealthCareVox Technorati Ranking not visible, but enormous amount of blogs linking, all look like SPAM BLOGS, but only gets 17 on Top 100(doesn't make ANY sense from pure numbers perspective, has 7,143 blogs linking compared to 144 for PharmaGiles).

I'm not sure I'm doing this right, but it looks like the Healthcare 100 is somewhat of whack, if not, I apologize. And I realize a static algorithm can't filter out the blogs cheating with spam blogs.

Cary, would you mind letting us know if I'm missing the big pictures, or if a tiny virus has been messing with your system? And perhaps check the Google and Bloglines rankings as well . . . ?

AP: "Whistleblowers on Fraud Facing Penalties"

To all you pigs out there, who spend your days destroying the lives of whistleblowers. (Yeah you know who you are - because you come here.) Here's the real story about what happens to whistleblowers, from Associated Press, today.

Whistleblowers on Fraud Facing Penalties
By DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP, 08.24.07, 3:16 PM ET

One after another, the men and women who have stepped forward to report corruption in the massive effort to rebuild Iraq have been vilified, fired and demoted.

Or worse.

For daring to report illegal arms sales, Navy veteran Donald Vance says he was imprisoned by the American military in a security compound outside Baghdad and subjected to harsh interrogation methods.

There were times, huddled on the floor in solitary confinement with that head-banging music blaring dawn to dusk and interrogators yelling the same questions over and over, that Vance began to wish he had just kept his mouth shut.

He had thought he was doing a good and noble thing when he started telling the FBI about the guns and the land mines and the rocket-launchers - all of them being sold for cash, no receipts necessary, he said. He told a federal agent the buyers were Iraqi insurgents, American soldiers, State Department workers, and Iraqi embassy and ministry employees.

The seller, he claimed, was the Iraqi-owned company he worked for, Shield Group Security Co.

"It was a Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) for guns," he says. "It was all illegal and everyone knew it."

So Vance says he blew the whistle, supplying photos and documents and other intelligence to an FBI agent in his hometown of Chicago because he didn't know whom to trust in Iraq.

For his trouble, he says, he got 97 days in Camp Cropper, an American military prison outside Baghdad that once held Saddam Hussein, and he was classified a security detainee.

Also held was colleague Nathan Ertel, who helped Vance gather evidence documenting the sales, according to a federal lawsuit both have filed in Chicago, alleging they were illegally imprisoned and subjected to physical and mental interrogation tactics "reserved for terrorists and so-called enemy combatants."

Corruption has long plagued Iraq reconstruction. Hundreds of projects may never be finished, including repairs to the country's oil pipelines and electricity system. Congress gave more than $30 billion to rebuild Iraq, and at least $8.8 billion of it has disappeared, according to a government reconstruction audit.

Despite this staggering mess, there are no noble outcomes for those who have blown the whistle, according to a review of such cases by The Associated Press.

"If you do it, you will be destroyed," said William Weaver, professor of political science at the University of Texas-El Paso and senior advisor to the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.

"Reconstruction is so rife with corruption. Sometimes people ask me, `Should I do this?' And my answer is no. If they're married, they'll lose their family. They will lose their jobs. They will lose everything," Weaver said.

They have been fired or demoted, shunned by colleagues, and denied government support in whistleblower lawsuits filed against contracting firms.

"The only way we can find out what is going on is for someone to come forward and let us know," said Beth Daley of the Project on Government Oversight, an independent, nonprofit group that investigates corruption. "But when they do, the weight of the government comes down on them. The message is, 'Don't blow the whistle or we'll make your life hell.'

"It's heartbreaking," Daley said. "There is an even greater need for whistleblowers now. But they are made into public martyrs. It's a disgrace. Their lives get ruined."

Bunnatine "Bunny" Greenhouse knows this only too well. As the highest-ranking civilian contracting officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, she testified before a congressional committee in 2005 that she found widespread fraud in multibillion-dollar rebuilding contracts awarded to former Halliburton (nyse: HAL - news - people ) subsidiary KBR (nyse: KBR - news - people ).

Soon after, Greenhouse was demoted. She now sits in a tiny cubicle in a different department with very little to do and no decision-making authority, at the end of an otherwise exemplary 20-year career.

People she has known for years no longer speak to her.

"It's just amazing how we say we want to remove fraud from our government, then we gag people who are just trying to stand up and do the right thing," she says.

In her demotion, her supervisors said she was performing poorly. "They just wanted to get rid of me," she says softly. The Army Corps of Engineers denies her claims.

"You just don't have happy endings," said Weaver. "She was a wonderful example of a federal employee. They just completely creamed her. In the end, no one followed up, no one cared."

But Greenhouse regrets nothing. "I have the courage to say what needs to be said. I paid the price," she says.

Then there is Robert Isakson, who filed a whistleblower suit against contractor Custer Battles in 2004, alleging the company - with which he was briefly associated - bilked the U.S. government out of tens of millions of dollars by filing fake invoices and padding other bills for reconstruction work.

He and his co-plaintiff, William Baldwin, a former employee fired by the firm, doggedly pursued the suit for two years, gathering evidence on their own and flying overseas to obtain more information from witnesses. Eventually, a federal jury agreed with them and awarded a $10 million judgment against the now-defunct firm, which had denied all wrongdoing.

It was the first civil verdict for Iraq reconstruction fraud.

But in 2006, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III overturned the jury award. He said Isakson and Baldwin failed to prove that the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-backed occupier of Iraq for 14 months, was part of the U.S. government.

Not a single Iraq whistleblower suit has gone to trial since.

"It's a sad, heartbreaking comment on the system," said Isakson, a former FBI agent who owns an international contracting company based in Alabama. "I tried to help the government, and the government didn't seem to care."


One way to blow the whistle is to file a "qui tam" lawsuit (taken from the Latin phrase "he who sues for the king, as well as for himself") under the federal False Claims Act.

Signed by Abraham Lincoln in response to military contractors selling defective products to the Union Army, the act allows private citizens to sue on the government's behalf.

The government has the option to sign on, with all plaintiffs receiving a percentage of monetary damages, which are tripled in these suits.

It can be a straightforward and effective way to recoup federal funds lost to fraud. In the past, the Justice Department has joined several such cases and won. They included instances of Medicare and Medicaid overbilling, and padded invoices from domestic contractors.

But the government has not joined a single quit tam suit alleging Iraq reconstruction abuse, estimated in the tens of millions. At least a dozen have been filed since 2004.

"It taints these cases," said attorney Alan Grayson, who filed the Custer Battles suit and several others like it. "If the government won't sign on, then it can't be a very good case - that's the effect it has on judges."

The Justice Department declined comment.

Most of the lawsuits are brought by former employees of giant firms. Some plaintiffs have testified before members of Congress, providing examples of fraud they say they witnessed and the retaliation they experienced after speaking up.

Julie McBride testified last year that as a "morale, welfare and recreation coordinator" at Camp Fallujah, she saw KBR exaggerate costs by double- and triple-counting the number of soldiers who used recreational facilities.

She also said the company took supplies destined for a Super Bowl party for U.S. troops and instead used them to stage a celebration for themselves.

"After I voiced my concerns about what I believed to be accounting fraud, Halliburton placed me under guard and kept me in seclusion," she told the committee. "My property was searched, and I was specifically told that I was not allowed to speak to any member of the U.S. military. I remained under guard until I was flown out of the country."

Halliburton and KBR denied her testimony.

She also has filed a whistleblower suit. The Justice Department has said it would not join the action. But last month, a federal judge refused a motion by KBR to dismiss the lawsuit.


Donald Vance, the contractor and Navy veteran detained in Iraq after he blew the whistle on his company's weapons sales, says he has stopped talking to the federal government.

Navy Capt. John Fleming, a spokesman for U.S. detention operations in Iraq, confirmed the detentions but said he could provide no further details because of the lawsuit.

According to their suit, Vance and Ertel gathered photographs and documents, which Vance fed to Chicago FBI agent Travis Carlisle for six months beginning in October 2005. Carlisle, reached by phone at Chicago's FBI field office, declined comment. An agency spokesman also would not comment.

The Iraqi company has since disbanded, according the suit.

Vance said things went terribly wrong in April 2006, when he and Ertel were stripped of their security passes and confined to the company compound.

Panicking, Vance said, he called the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, where hostage experts got on the phone and told him "you're about to be kidnapped. Lock yourself in a room with all the weapons you can get your hands on.'"

The military sent a Special Forces team to rescue them, Vance said, and the two men showed the soldiers where the weapons caches were stored. At the embassy, the men were debriefed and allowed to sleep for a few hours. "I thought I was among friends," Vance said.

The men said they were cuffed and hooded and driven to Camp Cropper, where Vance was held for nearly three months and his colleague for a little more than a month. Eventually, their jailers said they were being held as security internees because their employer was suspected of selling weapons to terrorists and insurgents, the lawsuit said.

The prisoners said they repeatedly told interrogators to contact Carlisle in Chicago. "One set of interrogators told us that Travis Carlisle doesn't exist. Then some others would say, 'He says he doesn't know who you are,'" Vance said.

Released first was Ertel, who has returned to work in Iraq for a different company. Vance said he has never learned why he was held longer. His own interrogations, he said, seemed focused on why he reported his information to someone outside Iraq.

And then one day, without explanation, he was released.

"They drove me to Baghdad International Airport and dumped me," he said.

When he got home, he decided to never call the FBI again. He called a lawyer, instead.

"There's an unspoken rule in Baghdad," he said. "Don't snitch on people and don't burn bridges."

For doing both, Vance said, he paid with 97 days of his life.

I almost fell over laughing, watching this one.

Flight of the Conchords - Business Time

Is it superficial to write about redheads as marketing opportunity?

Nope. I don't think so.

Neither did J&J BTW when they commented on my post.

Is it really over? Already?

Oh well. Perhaps it is time for me and John to move on.

MedAdNews "Pharma Blogs: Week in Review"

Click on images for large picture to read . . . or start subscribing to the newsletter!

Click here to subscribe to Pharma Blogs: Week in Review or our other eNewsletter.

Pfizer may very well buy Wyeth, and here is why.

Barbara Ryan, an analyst at Deutsche Bank who rates Pfizer stock a "buy," says she expects Pfizer to "trade like a treasury bond" until Pfizer takes a big strategic step, like a major acquisition.

Due to a raft of upcoming patent expirations, the future is bleak for Pfizer. Among others, Pfizer will lose the blockbuster Lipitor, as early as 2010. Lipitor generated 2006 revenues of $13.6 billion, which was 28% of Pfizer's $48 billion in revenues. And Lipitor is already being hurt by generics, because Lipitor’s competition is their losing patents. In Pfizer’s most recent quarterly report, U.S. sales of Lipitor dropped 25% from a year ago; worldwide, Lipitor sales were down 13% to $2.7 billion.

Continue reading my article, here.

Pharmalot shuts down. For a week.

Story here.

Maybe I should learn this.

Water.

Next to Sweden there is a country called Finland.

Bush worried about zombies.

Bush Worried About New Threat - Watch more free videos

Guess what happened to the 13-year old that drew this picture?

If you guessed three day suspension from school, you guessed right.

And not for poor drawing skills.

He was considered a "threat."

Story here.

Impactiviti reveals the biggest merger in pharma blogging.

His post is Blockbuster Pharma Blogger Mega-merger Announced!

Don't miss it.

And don't miss John Mack's comments here. I note he gets up at 6 in the morning to start blogging. That's way too early for me.



But I also have some more serious thoughts on Steve Woodruff's announcement today. The fact is that most regular news are boring, so we bloggers sometimes have to jazz things up a bit. After all, less than 10% of people 30 and under read a daily newspaper, but they do read blogs.

My second thought is that competition for readers is heating up. The WSJ HealthBlog, which initially was very formal, is loosening up a bit, Pharmalot is featuring posts like "The Levitra Pen Rises To The Occasion," and Impactiviti is starting to have fun. Something must be going on in the blog world . . .

How many drug reps does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Six. One to screw it in and five to pretend they did it.

Do you live in South Africa?

Good. You can order Killer Drug from Loot.

Want to know what 12,000 readers read in the last 6 hours?

Check it out here.

Oh, and now it is 15,000 in 10 hours.

The blue woman.

"I won’t give the plot away, but in brief, there are shenanigans going in the top echelons of a drug company, and the novel’s protagonist, Alex McGraw, ends up finding out the shady stuff and blows the whistle. People start disappearing. Human chess pieces move and counter-move, and some end up out of play. Oh, and one lady gets painted blue."

- Steve Woodruff.

Download first five KILLER DRUG chapters.

Of if you are really lazy: Listen to Killer Drug Chapter 1.mp3

Or listen to the Killer Drug theme song:Killer Drug Theme Song.mp3

Is Steve going to announce a new career?

The Impactiviti blogger has us all waiting. Photo credit: PharmaSpy.

I can't stand waiting for surprises.

This is what Impactivit wrote today:

Biggest Pharma Blogger News Ever to be Unveiled Thursday!
Aug 21st, 2007 by impactiviti

You thought Peter Rost taking over at Brandweek NRx was big.
Or the ever-anonymous Jack Friday (writer of PharmaGossip) giving an interview.
Or the WSJ HealthBlog actually posting something interesting (that was pretty big, actually…).
Wait ’til you see what’s been leaked in an obscure alley to our eager ears here at Impactiviti. It’s big, it’s exclusive…and it’s coming Thursday. Only here at Impactiviti!

Anyone know Impactiviti's news? Pleeeeeeeeeeease!?

The KILLER DRUG theme song is here!

Click here to listen!

The blogger who-will-not-be-mentioned . . .

. . . is pretty funny sometimes.

The headline of his post today is, "Record Number of New Subscribers Anxious to Read My Review of Killer Drug!"

Then he talks about all the new subscribers he got to his newsletters, thanks to his upcoming review of my new book, Killer Drug, which you can only read in his newsletter.

And then he finishes his post, "As you can see, it's not all about Rost!"

I'm not sure he realizes the irony in those sentences. And I guess I'm the only one left not subscribing to his newsletter after this brilliant marketing move.

Pfizer + Wyeth = True?

This is an old post, as you can tell it was written 2007 . . .

To read what I predicted about the Wyeth - Pfizer merger, see my story in Brandweek: Pfizer should buy Wyeth. Here's why.

Or check recent posts here.

"Killer Drug is the night - very dark . . ." says the Evil One

The Evil One is at it again . . . he writes:

"Although whistleblowing figures prominently in both novels, the two are as different as night and day. Killer Drug is the night – very dark and lacking depth – whereas Big Pharma is the day – shedding light on real-world pharmaceutical marketing and sales practices."

Of course the fact that he is dissing my book is not a surprise, anything else would be a surprise. After all, this blogger was the only one who didn't "get" The Whistleblower and thought the book was better as a blog. Duh.

But what is interesting is that you can't read his review of Killer Drug on his blog. You have to sign up for his newsletter to read it.

"Don't miss it! Subscribe here. It's free!" he writes.

And so, he's shamelessly trying to gain subscribers off his attacks on my blood, sweat and tears.

The Evil One. He's out there, visiting every pharma blog and leaving his wretched comments behind.

Tomorrow . . . the KILLER DRUG song

Is Brandweek NRX really boring?

Yep, sure is.

If you believe one evil blogger who-will-not-be-named.

But not if you read this.

Sorry Edelman PR . . .

Am I the only writer who didn't swallow your story hook line and sinker?

Shame on the regular, bird-brained media. This is what they wrote.

It is good that some drugs are expensive . . .

I'll tell you why, here.

To poll or not to poll . . .

Realizations in Biostatistics makes some level headed comments on the First Ever Pharma Blogsphere Survey, and web polls in general.

Read his post Web polls in blog entries - I don't trust them.

Don't miss this one! That goes especially for the angry little blogger who created that poll.

Oh, and gotta love this comment, left on my original post BrandweekNRX blows the whistle on the "Pharma Blogosphere Survey", which got Mack buzzing around the Internet, posting derogatory comments about yours truly:

"John Mack has somehow appointed himself to be Lord of the Pharma Blogs. I often wonder if his arm hurts from patting himself on the back so often.

I must post anonymously because he unleashes his arrogant vitriol against any blogger who:
a) disagrees with him,
b) is more famous than him (That's you, Peter!), or
c) covers any pharma topic that he does not deem worthy. (Just check out Mack's many dismissive comments on his Pharma BlowhardSphereTM site.)

Congrats on Brandweek!

Posted by: Anonymous Blogger August 06, 2007 at 06:05 PM"

Why was a woman abducted in Cancun and painted blue?

And what do humming bird feathers have to do with all this?

This is what Steve Woodruff wrote in his review: "I won’t give the plot away, but in brief, there are shenanigans going in the top echelons of a drug company, and the novel’s protagonist, Alex McGraw, ends up finding out the shady stuff and blows the whistle. People start disappearing. Human chess pieces move and counter-move, and some end up out of play. Oh, and one lady gets painted blue."

Want to know why the lady was painted blue and what happened to her?

Download the first five chapers of Killer Drug free, right here!

Ed Stackler in his revew called it "A stand-out thriller fueled by real experience."

"For readers who love escapist thrillers as I do, this novel delivers a fluid, fast-paced ride that outdoes virtually all its "financial thriller" competition.

"But what makes the novel truly exceptional is that -- like most great fiction -- it's rooted in real-life experience. Like his novel's protagonist, Peter Rost blew the whistle at a major pharmaceutical company (actually, at two of them). Without that experience, no author could do what Rost does -- make his own hero's whistleblowing journey a visceral and emotionally charged journey where the stakes are unimaginably high."

Hilarious.

PharmGiles entry.

Should've discovered this earlier.

Med Ad News/PharmaLive covers blog attack on BrandweekNRX.

Full coverage on BrandweekNRX.

With this Question Authority concludes its coverage of Mack's yapping.

Well, maybe we'll tell you next week just how many visitors we got to those posts he hated.

And, perhaps you'll conclude that, in spite of being a "marketing consultant," Mack knows very little about - marketing.

I can't wait for him to rip my book KILLER DRUG apart, since objectivity clearly isn't his forte. But I guess there were too many pages to actually read that 360-page tome.

MedAdNews "Pharma Blogs: Week in Review"

Click on images for large picture to read . . . or start subscribing to the newsletter!

Click here to subscribe to Pharma Blogs: Week in Review or our other eNewsletter.

If you have read KILLER DRUG, you'll understand.

Download the first five chapers here!



Image by PharmaSpy.

ED STACKLER reviews KILLER DRUG

A stand-out thriller fueled by real experience.
By Ed Stackler

"For readers who love escapist thrillers as I do, this novel delivers a fluid, fast-paced ride that outdoes virtually all its "financial thriller" competition. This is remarkable, given that Peter Rost, a native of Sweden, speaks and writes English as a second language. Most born-and-bred Americans who tried their hand at fiction wouldn't come close to matching Rost's dialogue or prose."

"But what makes the novel truly exceptional is that -- like most great fiction -- it's rooted in real-life experience. Like his novel's protagonist, Peter Rost blew the whistle at a major pharmaceutical company (actually, at two of them). Without that experience, no author could do what Rost does -- make his own hero's whistleblowing journey a visceral and emotionally charged journey where the stakes are unimaginably high."

Available on Amazon here.

IMPACTIVITI reviews KILLER DRUG

Steve Woodruff just posted Killer Drug: An Accelerated Review on his blog IMPACTIVITI.

He also sent an e-mail to me which he finished with the line, "But, to give you a more personal touch - I generally read my Wall Street Journal at night before bed, after which I'll pick up a book. Last night, I actually skipped my Wed. WSJ to get right into the action in Killer Drug. THAT does not happen often!"

He also wrote that "the story has enough "thrill" elements and twists and turns to keep me turning pages- lots of "nasties" to hate, which is important in a thriller - but the good and bad people are too black and white. Some more nuance would be helpful here."

And here are some of the things Steve liked about the book in his formal review:

"I won’t give the plot away, but in brief, there are shenanigans going in the top echelons of a drug company, and the novel’s protagonist, Alex McGraw, ends up finding out the shady stuff and blows the whistle. People start disappearing. Human chess pieces move and counter-move, and some end up out of play. Oh, and one lady gets painted blue."

"In many ways, it was a pretty decent read - some good thriller action, a few gory sequences, ruthless characters getting payback in kind, etc. For a first novel, not bad."

"Beside seeing the good guys victorious in the end, and some bad dudes go down hard, you do get a bit of an education on some of the legal aspects of whistleblowing. The main protagonist and his lawyer/fiancee do get into discussions that spotlight how that area of the law works. Just in case you need it in the future…"

"All in all - a nice summer time-killer. You won’t get college credit for this, but one thing you’ll take away is this - if someone offers you anything with “Convulsor” as an ingredient, probably you should opt to take a pass!"

Available on Amazon here.

The Liquid Kiss

New song coming soon . . .

THE WORLD’S FIRST INTERVIEW WITH PHARMAGOSSIP

One of the most well known and admired blogs in the pharma field is PharmaGossip, which started already back in 2005.

The creator of PharmaGossip, Jack Friday, a.k.a. “the Insider” has never revealed his real name and very few personal details. He remains the King of Anonymous Blogging.

Where others have been unmasked, he has managed to cloak his identity. To do so he has refused any direct contact with the press and he has never given an interview in which he spoke directly to anyone.

Until now, that is.

You can read my interview on BrandweekNRX.

Ich spreche Deutsch.

Image courtesy of PharmaSpy.

Pfizer whistleblower crucified on CafePharma message board.

I have in the past written a number of articles about Jane Roe, a Pfizer whistleblower who made the allegations that Pfizer illegally premarketed its new HIV drug maraviroc. Most recently I reported on BrandweekNRX that three Pfizer executives in the HIV division were terminated only a few days before maraviroc received a delayed approval.

Two long message threads (here and here) have now appeared on the Pfizer message board on CafePharma, indicating that the maraviroc whistleblower's name is "James Raymond," who supposedly is a Pfizer sales rep now getting a nursing degree. The fact that James Raymond is indeed one of many employees in Pfizer's sales organization is confirmed by information in other CafePharma posts.

My article continues here.

"FDA approved drug makes you hypersexual and a compulsive gambler!"

GlaxoSmithKline has been forced to update its package insert for Requip, a drug used to treat restless legs syndrome (RLS) or, "jitters in the legs," which some claim isn ’t a real disease.

What is real, is that Requip also causes “pathological gambling,” and “increased libido including hypersexuality.”

Story on BrandweekNRX.

John Mack apologizes to me!!!

Read the story over at BrandweekNRX.

Quote of the day about Killer Drug: "By the 4th chapter, I was hooked."

Emon has left a new comment on my post "KILLER DRUG Monday evening: #35 among legal thrillers":

"It was an excellent choice you made to put the first 5 chapters online. I downloaded it and started reading it last night - admitting that I didn't expect much. By the 4th chapter, I was hooked. For some reason I have an eerie feeling about Metcalf. We'll see."

If you, too, want to read the first five chapters of Killer Drug for free, click below:

Download KILLER DRUG.

Is Brandweek distancing itself from Rost?

Apparently there is a rumor going around the Internet, according to healthcare blog Envisioning 2.0.

In a post called Is BrandWeek Distancing Itself From Peter Rost? The Evidence & Jim Edwards Say No, this blog addresses those rumors - with an interview with former BrandweekNRX journalist Jim Edwards (whom I owe a great deal, since he recommended me for the job at Brandweek).

And I read the following with interest, since I don't necessarily know anything more than anyone else:

Is it true that BrandWeek is distancing itself from Dr. Rost? Last week I conducted an interview with Jim Edwards, BrandWeekNRx’s former author, for a new WebTv show I am producing in partnership with Scribe Media, The Digital Health Revolution. He told me there is no evidence that BrandWeek is putting a firewall between itself and Rost. Specifically Edwards said:

o The BrandWeekNRx logo has not changed. It’s the same as has always been since the blog was launched

o All of BrandWeek’s blogs are listed on the front page of the magazine’s Website. If you scroll down, you’ll see that the company refers to Rost’s blog as BrandWeekNRx and still prominently displays its posts (see screen shot below; click it to enlarge)

o BrandWeekNRx’s traffic has shot up since Rost took the helm, which is something the publication is very happy about.

In addition to discussing Rost’s addition to the BrandWeek blogger roster, Edwards and I had a very interesting and wide ranging conversation. Stay tuned to this blog for more info about The

Digital Health Revolution, which will launch later this summer.

KILLER DRUG Monday evening: #35 among legal thrillers

BrandweekNRX beats every record in pharma blogging.

Want to know how many readers BrandweekNRX had last week?

Go to BrandweekNRX.

Quote of the day: "Peter Rost is pretty much a rock star in the pharma blogging world these days."

Some dark forces claim that the author of this blog exhibits narcisisstic personality traits and may suffer from a messiah delusion. So I don't want to disappoint them. Thank you Furious Seasons.

"Peter Rost is pretty much a rock star in the pharma blogging world these days."
- Furious Seasons.

KILLER DRUG goes to Japan: Record sales!

Here are the results today: KILLER DRUG is #10,000 in sales ranking in JAPAN!

I'm not sure how this has happened, maybe all the Pfizer employees in Japan buying?

Buy KILLER DRUG from Amazon Japan.

Click on image to view full size.

KILLER DRUG geht nach Deutschland: Rekordverkäufe!

Das deutsche healthcare blog Stationäre Aufnahmen versprach seine Leser, "Ich habe das Buch bestellt. Besprechung folgt."

Möglicherweise ist dieses der Grund, den das Buch bereits in der oberen Strecke 5.000 auf Amazon in Deutschland ist?

Danke Stationäre Aufnahmen!!!

Kauf Killer Drug an Amazon Deutschland!

The German healthcare blog Stationäre Aufnahmen promised its readers, "I've ordered the book. Review will follow." Perhaps this is the reason the book is already in the top 5,000 range on Amazon in Germany?

Buy Killer Drug from Amazon Germany!




Thank you Stationäre Aufnahmen!!!

Read KILLER DRUG for free:

Download e-book, first five chapters here:

Download KILLER DRUG.

Buy KILLER DRUG in the U.S., Canda, U.K., Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Finland and Sweden:

• Booklocker
  
• Amazon, US
  
• Barnes & Noble
  
• Amazon, Canada
  
• Libre, Germany
  
• Amazon, Germany
  
• The Book Place, UK
  
• Amazon, UK
  
• ShopIreland, Ireland
  
• Amazon, France
  
• Webster, Italy
  
• Amazon, Japan
  
• Kinokuniya Bookweb, Korea
  
• Loot, South Africa
  
• BookPlus, Finland
  
• Bokus, Sweden
  
• Adlibris, Sweden
  
  FOREIGN TRANSLATIONS:
  
• Bokus, Sweden (Swedish translation, title Vargflocken)
  
• Adlibris, Sweden (Swedish translation, title Vargflocken)
  
• Bokfynd, Sweden (Swedish translation, title Vargflocken)
  
• Internetbokhandeln.se (Swedish translation, title Vargflocken)
  
• Pagina Förlagsbutik (Swedish translation, title Vargflocken)

Barnes & Noble customers who bought KILLER DRUG . . .

B&N Customers Who Bought This Book Also Bought
Cross
James Patterson
The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown
Beach Road
James Patterson, Peter de Jonge, Peter De Jonge
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James Patterson, Michael Ledwidge, Michael Ledwidge
Judge & Jury
James Patterson, Andrew Gross, Andrew Gross

CELEBRATION!

Make your own at ProfilePitstop.com

Image hat tip: PharmaGossip

My new book - KILLER DRUG - on Amazon's top 25 legal thrillers list!

Killer Drug is coming in #24, right after Brian Haig's "The Kingmaker," only a few hours after promotion started. Link to Amazon top 25 legal thrillers.

You can find more information about "Killer Drug" in my post "Declassified CIA documents reveal drug companies gave the CIA drugs with bad side effects."

Declassified CIA documents reveal drug companies gave the CIA drugs with bad side effects.

THE CIA on June 26, 2007 declassified secret documents* (for reprint, see below) that revealed “the Agency had relations with commercial drug manufacturers, whereby they passed on drugs rejected because of unfavorable side effects.”

"Killer Drug" is a thriller about one such drug company, which develops a biological weapon for the CIA and uses murder to achieve its objectives. It is also a drama about just how far corporate executives may be willing to go . . .



More information here: http://killerdrug.blogspot.com/.

Free excerpt from KILLER DRUG (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).



"Killer Drug" is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and all other book retailers. Click here for list and price comparison.

*This is the CIA document released as part of the CIA “Family Jewels.” Click on image for full size.

MedAdNews "Pharma Blogs: Week in Review"

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What were they thinking?

Red Cross sued over its - Red Cross!

J&J, one of the largest drug makers in the world has sued the Red Cross over its use of one of the most famous symbols in the world - the red cross.

Read the amazing story - here.

What you didn't know about Ed Silverman and Pharmalot . . .

Find out in my BrandweekNRX article "Straight talk with a journalist who turned cutting-edge blogger."

The Pharma Blogosphere Blog makes a suggestion Rupert Murdoch can't ignore.

I won't spoil the fun for you.

But right when I was working myself into a frenzy John Mack pushes me off balance with some kind words and a wacko idea.

And I can't be mad anymore.

Go to his post Murdock, the WSJ Health Blog, and Beyond! and vote . . .

Did I really shut up John Mack?

John has been silent since our last argument at, oh, about 5:52 pm yesterday.

This is in itself unusual. I hope he is well and recovering.

Image courtesy of PharmSpy.

Ihadnothingtodowithit.