The Lion King - Uncensored

Crazy.

Things are indeed pretty crazy. So my posts over here have been interrupted by travel, and other interesting things. So if you get longely, don't forget to visit BrandweekNRX. Since I get paid to write over there, you'll find new things on a regular basis.

Back in the U.S.A.

It's been crazy lately, with my Swedish book launch. At least the press has been incredible and it is time to go back to writing regular articles. You can find them on BrandweekNRX.

Today was a pretty good day.

My speech in Swedish Parliament worked out well - check.

The Swedish translation of my book Killer Drug, called Wolfpack or Vargflocken was launched today - check.

Full page interview and review of my new book in "Svenska Dagbladet," Sweden's largest conservative newspaper - check.

My op-ed article appeared in "Dagens Industri," the largest business daily in Scandinavia - check.

Radio interview, one hour show - check.

Great review of my new book in the business magazine Affärsvärlden, calling the book a "nail-biting thriller."

Pretty good day, all in all.

Oh yeah, my book is now featured as the top selection on the first page of the largest Swedish Internet book store, next to Harry Potter, and above the book by the former Swedish Prime Minister released yesterday.

Very good day, I'd say.

Only thing left is to get those hard-headed American journalists to talk about the book. Right, I'll do that in a radio interview in New York on Friday. This might even become a good week.

Killer Drug/Vargflocken compared to book by Swedish Prime Minister

Today I got a nice surprise. The biggest Internet book store in Sweden sent a mailing to 300,000 customers in which they compared two new books.

One is written by Sweden's former prime minister, the other one by yours truly.

Killer Drug/Vargflocken is off to a great start and tomorrow is official launch date.

Peter Rost's thriller debut . . .

I guess this overseas headline on the front cover can be understood even by an english speaking person . . . article here.

Stick Magnetic Ribbons on Your SUV!

Can't really trust dogs and cats.

Last time I left my dog alone at home, after driving away I had to return because I forgot something. Usually she's right by the door, yapping and going crazy that I'm arriving back home. This time there was silence. Couldn't find her anywhere. Finally I found her in the stairs, trying to get back down from upstairs, unnoticed. She's forbidden to go there . . . clearly first thing she did, though, as soon as I left and she thought I wouldn't be back for a while.

Just a reminder . . .

I'm also writing BrandweekNRX, an online column for Brandweek, on a daily basis, so don't miss my comments over there about what is going on in the drug industry and health information you wouldn't find anywhere else . . .

Man executed by Chicago police.

Compare this video, with what police said happened. Just the facts:

Invisible in the bathroonm!

If you understand german this is even more fun.

Killer Drug in Sweden: Vargflocken (The Wolf Pack)

My new thriller Killer Drug will be officially launched in Sweden next week, and the major Internet stores, such as Adlibris and Bokus have kindly placed it on their front pages . . . we're waiting for some key reviews in the U.S. and then we can launch with some proper noise here as well.




Swedish front cover of Killer Drug/Vargflocken



And if you read Swedish, you can click on entire cover below and read . . . have fun Pfizer!

Like cursors?

Try out what happens on this site.

Not sure how to tie your sneakers?

Then you really need to check this out. I had no idea there were this many ways.

Move over Jeep. Here comes Lada. Under the water.

Hear the fingers sizzle.

Pharmalot: "Love me I'm a liberal"

Pfizer doesn't know what to say . . . and tries to distance itself from CEO love for Hillary

Pfizer response to CNBC:

“Information about Jeff’s personal contributions to political candidates, including Senator Hillary Clinton, is easily accessible on a number of campaign disclosure web sites. These donations are distinct from Pfizer PAC, which supports candidates approved by an independent steering committee of employees. (For more information, see this) Participating in America’s political electoral process is an extension of our colleagues’ involvement in the communities where we live and work.”

My comments here.

WSJ picks up my BrandweekNRX story on Pfizer CEO supporting Hillary.

Pharma CEOs Divide Political Loyalties

Posted by Jacob Goldstein

Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler has donated a couple grand to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, a post over on Brandweek NRX points out.

Not terribly surprising, perhaps, given Clinton’s new ideas on health care, and Kindler’s history of donating to Democrats. But it’s sure a switch for Pfizer’s top brass. Kindler’s predecessor Hank McKinnell showered his dough on Republicans (with few exceptions), according to data from the Federal Election Commission. (Enter “McKinnell” on this page at the FEC to see for yourself.)

But it’s always interesting to learn how pharma fat cats are using their cash to play politics — especially at a time when Washington’s buzzing about health care. So the Health Blog did a little digging at this Center for Responsive Politics web site to see what other drug company CEOs are up to. Here are a few interesting tidbits:

• Pfizer’s Kindler isn’t afraid to put some money on a longshot — in addition to giving $2,300 to Clinton, he gave $2,300 to Chris Dodd, a presidential candidate and senator from Kindler’s current home state, Connecticut. Dodd’s chances of becoming president are about the same as torcetrapib becoming Pfizer’s next blockbuster.
  
• Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer has been ladling out gravy left and right — $26,000 to the Republican Senatorial and Congressional campaign committees, and another $26,000 to the Democratic Senatorial and Congressional campaign committees. On top of that, he’s given to Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Mitt Romney and assorted senators. Makes sense for a guy running a company whose cash-cow anemia drugs have been facing lots of scrutiny in Washington.
  

• Abbott Laboratories’ Miles White, on the other hand, is a party-line man. He gave $15,000 to the Republican Party of Illinois (where Abbott is headquartered), $5,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, and smaller donations to Senator Ted Stevens (R-Ak.), Congressman Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The data go back to the beginning of this year, and were downloaded from the SEC on Sept. 24. So there may be some donations that aren’t captured here.

CNBC picks up my BrandweekNRX story on Pfizer CEO supporting Hillary.

Pfizer's Kindler: Does He Want Hillary In White House?

Posted By:Mike Huckman CNBC

CNBC.com

Peter Rost, who burst onto the business news landscape a few years ago as a Pfizer [PFE 25.32 -0.13 (-0.51%) ]

whistleblower and the subject of a piece on CBS' "60 Minutes", is enjoying a new career as a blogger and a reporter for Brandweek.

And late yesterday he blitzed some of his reporter contacts with this item about the apparent 180-degree change in presidential politics at the world's biggest pharmaceutical company. The former Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, Hank McKinnell, was a dyed-in-the-wool Republican and one of President Bush's "Rangers"--no, not a player on the baseball team he used to own, but someone who brought in six-figures to the Bush campaigns.

And while the industry knows it has to play both sides of the aisle these days, it's conventional political wisdom that big pharma, in general, is friendlier with the GOP than the Dems.

But based on the campaign contribution record of the new Pfizer Chairman and CEO, Jeff Kindler, it appears he likes the Dems better. You can check it out here.

For example, last April, Kindler gave $2,300 to Senator Hillary Clinton. Over the past few years, he's written checks worth several thousand dollars for Virginia Democratic Governor Mark Warner. Last year he contributed more than $4,000 to the campaign of a Democratic Congressional candidate in his homestate of Connecticut.

And earlier this year, he also supported Connecticut Democratic Senator and presidential candidate Chris Dodd to the tune of $2,300. You have to go back to 2003 to find a contribution to a Republican--$1,000 to Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch.

I've got emails and voicemails into Pfizer's top spokespeople requesting a comment on Rost's report. I will update this entry if/when I hear back, even if it's a "no comment".

Questions? Comments?
Pharma@cnbc.com

The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Pharma's biggest CEO goes for Hillary?"

Pharma's biggest CEO goes for Hillary?

Perhaps it was a secret hiding in plain sight. But Peter Rost at BrandweekNRX got our attention this morning by saying that Jeff Kindler at Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) not only contributes to Democrats but is a major supporter of Hillary Clinton for president. He bases this on a clear pattern of pro-Hillary campaign donations, and he poses this question:

Question is what this means as far as Hillary goes - if the big drug companies start to support her, she sure has come a long way since she tried to implement healthcare reform.

We also might wonder how this might play with other C-level pharma executives, who by and large are Republicans and support Repblicans, according to our experiences and a raft of research. Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK)'s CEO Dick Clark is a registered Republican in Montgomery County. So is Wyeth's R&D chief Bob Ruffolo. The list could go on. Them again, the political landscape for Big Pharma, of course, began changing last year with the Democratic takeover of the House. Stay tuned.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize

WOW!

Dogs and cats in China. (Warning - strong images)

WTF? WTF?

New Finnish magazine.

Winter is coming.

And next week I'm flying to Sweden. Brrr.





Photo credit Best Pics.

61% of rich women said they were having affairs.

Wealth has many perks: great vacations, beautiful houses and nice cars. But if its marital bliss you're looking for, don't expect money to help. Almost half of America's rich say they're unhappy in marriage, a study found. What's worse: More than that say they've been unfaithful in the last three years.

Continued here.

World's highest jaccuzzi party

It is for real, check it out here.

Norwegian female version of "Borat" interviews republican council member Oddo of New York

Apologize for the language, but it is one of our elected conservative representatives using it, so, hey . . .

It is tough getting married.

Schizofrenia

Learn Chinese in 5 minutes.

Click to enlarge. Read loud.

American nothing.

New Smart car coming soon.

Guess what they're advertising?

Most popular show in Britain

Surprised we haven't seen this one on PharmaGossip. Balls of Steel: The Annoying Devil.

Iraq. IED.

Think YOUR commute is bad?

McDonalds.

If this application doesn't fit on the QUESTION AUTHORITY blog, I don't know what would. Click to enlarge and, please do click!

www.peterrost.org

So I tried out http://www.peterrost.com/ and http://www.peterrost.org to see who is trying to make money on searches off my name . . . the funny thing is what happened when I typed in the org address . . . is Pfizer trying to make money off my name?

Sure looks like it!

Capitol Hill - A House of Cards?

At least this one . . . built with 22,000 playing cards in 3 days, and then ruined in seconds. Surely this must be refined political commentary.

Osama sends letter to Bush.

After numerous rounds of "We don't even know if Osama is still alive," Osama himself decided to send George W. Bush a letter in his own handwriting to let the President know he was still in the game.

Bush opened the letter and it appeared to contain a single line of coded message:

370HSSV-0773H

Bush was baffled, so he e-mailed it to Condi Rice. Condi and her aides had no clue either, so they sent it to the FBI.

No one could solve it at the FBI so it went to the CIA, then to the NSA.

With no clue as to its meaning they eventually asked Britain's MI-6 for help. Within a minute MI-6 called the White House with this reply, "Tell the President he's holding the message upside down."

The only way to slice a tomato.

Test your party preference

You may be surprised. I was.

Here.

Ever tried the define function on Google?

You can find all kinds of definitions for words by typing "define:" and then the word. Like "ecstatic."

Go to google, then put in: define:ecstatic

NSFW

More news outlets asking me to write for them . . .

It is starting to get hectic and a little bit interesting.

In addition to the current gig for Brandweek and Realtid.se, more news outlets have approached me to write for them. If it happens, and they like what I do, I'll let you know.

My only regret is that it makes it a bit harder to keep up with this personal blog.

After all, I'd like to keep it going since you never know how long the other stuff lasts, and it is nice to have a voice out there . . .

Today I'm starting to write for a daily business paper in Sweden.

So all the Pfizer lawyers following me will have to learns Swedish.

You can find the first article here.

BrandweekNRX top posts today

Here are the top five today:

Former Pfizer CEO Bill Steere and seven other Pfizer execs may be arrested by Interpol

Physician reimbursement is too low. Or so they say.

Walgreens eating humble pie. The Wal-Mart effect sets in.

Wyeth CEO makes life-style choice four months after Wyeth CFO makes life-style choice.

Getting high on a can of Coke.

Summer in Sweden

Check more images here. Warning, you may throw up!

Will former Pfizer CEO be arrested by Interpol?

Story over at BrandweekNRX.

These people sure got stuck.

Woman gets stuck at the house of fun. Probably more fun for onlookers than for her. Not sure how she will live this down . . .



And . . . paraglider who also gets stuck . . . in cables.

Pfizer lawyer Ronald Green loses $11.6 million trial (and more to come) in Knicks sexual harassment suit.

Ronald Green is the guy with the name on the door of Epstein, Becker & Green. He is also the lead lawyer representing Pfizer against my wrongful termination complaint and the one who's taken all my depositions.

Mr. Green also represents Isiah Thomas, the coach of the New York Knicks, who was accused of sexually harassing a former team executive and the Madison Square Garden, the owner of the team, which was accused of improperly firing her for complaining about the unwanted advances.

According to the New York Times, the jury, in Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled that the former executive, Anucha Browne Sanders, is entitled to $11.6 million in punitive damages from the Garden and James L. Dolan, the chairman of Cablevision, the parent company of the Garden and the Knicks.

Of that figure, $6 million was awarded because of the hostile work environment Mr. Thomas was found to have created, and $5.6 million because Ms. Browne Sanders was fired for complaining about it. Mr. Dolan’s share is $3 million; the Garden is liable for the rest.

The judge will decide later on compensatory damages, covering actual economic harm suffered by Ms. Browne Sanders, like back pay and benefits.

”This is not about sexual harassment,” Mr. Green said. Instead, he said, it was about money.

Of course, this is what Mr. Green is paid to say.

Walk on water, with a Non-Newtonian fluid.

Corn starch mixed with water does the trick. It is solid when force is applied and liquid when less foce is applied.

Life. And death.

Presentation to Swedish Parliament.

Sorry . . . not too many posts lately. I'm working on my presentation for the drug hearing at the Swedish Parliament later this month. More info here.

So, see you in Sweden, Pfizer lawyers, detectives, investigators and lobbyists!

Don't miss PharmaGiles today . . .

Athletes and growth hormone. The way only PharmaGiles can tell it.

Go here to read.

So, what is going on here, at Question Authority?

If you only visit sporadically, you may not know that I started to write for BrandweekNRX two months ago. I am focusing my pharmaceutical, health & science related posts over there. After all, Brandweek is paying me to write about those areas.

So over here at Question Authority, I've been doing posts that deal with questioning authority in general. In fact, several readers have asked me to do more of the "light" and less heavy duty stuff over here.

But of course, if there's a big story I may have cross linked.

I also have the possibility to write for CounterPunch, which I've done frequently on certain occasions, and I have a column over at NJ.com and also sometimes write for OpEdNews. It does become a bit hard, however, to keep up with all those sites, so for now I focus on this blog and Brandweek.

That may change. Additional news outlets have approached me about writing for them, and if there is no conflict and they decided to go ahead, then, I'll let you know . . .