Pfizer yesterday said it fired Peter Rost, a vice president of marketing, who for more than a year criticized the drug industry in speeches and press appearances.
Rost's ouster solved one of the drug industry's great mysteries: Why did Pfizer continue to pay what Rost says was $700,000 annually in wages and retirement benefits while he publicly undermined his employer?
The answer: Rost became a self-styled cause célèbre under the protection of a federal whistle-blower lawsuit he filed in June 2003, just days before Pfizer finalized its merger of Pharmacia.
The whistle-blower suit was unsealed Nov. 10 when the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston declined to intervene, clearing the way for Pfizer's action yesterday. Pfizer also filed a motion to dismiss.
"We informed Peter Rost and his lawyers that the company will be offering him a severance package and that we are terminating his employment," said Paul Fitzhenry, a spokesman at New York-based Pfizer.
Rost, reached by telephone in Costa Rica, where he is traveling on personal business, characterized his termination in a letter delivered to his lawyer as retribution by Pfizer. "You know what's been going on in the press, and they are trying to get back at me," he said.
Insider says: Dont get mad, Pete, get even!
Star Ledger
2 comments:
Pfizer needs undermined.
I am definetly no fan of Pfizer, but it's about time.
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