An insider turns against drug industry

Peter Rost made a lot of money for his employers in the pharmaceutical industry. Now he has turned against them.

A vice president of marketing at Pfizer Inc., Rost has broken ranks and is publicly accusing drug companies of employing misleading and immoral tactics in their effort to stop the importation of low-cost prescription medicine from Canada.

At press conferences and on cable TV news shows, Rost has called the industry's warnings about safety a ''made-up story" and asserts that ordering drugs from pharmacies in Western countries is safe. He also contends it is wrong for drug companies to squeeze supply pipelines in an effort to restrict the flow of low-cost drugs to American consumers.

Rost planned to hit the issue again today at a Washington press conference with members of Congress who are sponsoring importation legislation. It is the first time a drug executive has gone public with such a scathing critique of industry practices.

''It strikes me as immoral to limit trade to Canada under the guise that it is unsafe," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Short Hills, N.J. ''The big safety issue is people not taking drugs -- people having heart attacks because they can't afford to stay on cholesterol-lowering medication."

Rost has been embraced by advocates of prescription importation. On the other side, he is giving manufacturers -- especially Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker -- a thorny public-relations problem in the debate over sky-high US prescription prices. Firing or disciplining Rost could make him a martyr, while doing nothing provides him a platform to keep generating publicity.

Although he is mostly echoing arguments that have already been made by others, Rost said he hopes his insider's perspective will boost the pro-importation side of the debate.

''It makes the issue a lot more fun when it's a pharmaceutical executive, especially when its someone from Pfizer, and especially when its someone who's willing to put his neck on the line," he said. Pfizer is best known as the maker of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor and arthritis pain reliever Celebrex.

Rost, 45, a Swedish native who became a US citizen 10 years ago, has a track record of ruffling industry feathers. He reached a settlement last year with Wyeth, a former employer, after alleging in a whistleblower lawsuit that he had been demoted for telling superiors about company executives avoiding foreign taxes on bonuses. Under terms of the settlement, neither Rost nor Wyeth will discuss details.

Rost is waging a much higher-profile campaign this time around. Starting in August, he wrote a favorable review on Amazon.com of a book by Harvard University professor and former New England Journal of Medicine editor Marcia Angell, which is highly critical of the drug industry. ''I guess I'm not supposed to like this book," he wrote, identifying himself as a pharmaceutical executive. ''But I thought it was fantastic."

A few weeks later, Rost contacted former Springfield Mayor Michael Albano, who leapt to prominence in 2003 when he started a Canadian drug program for city employees. That led to Rost's first public appearance at a journalism conference in New York two weeks ago.

Despite outward appearances, Rost insists he wants to keep his job as vice president for endocrine care at Pfizer. He said he is speaking for himself, exercising what he calls his First Amendment rights to free speech. Thus far, he said he has not suffered any repercussions from his employer.

''I hope they will accept and appreciate diversity of opinion," he said.

Pfizer would not discuss whether it is contemplating action against Rost. ''Peter Rost's views on importation represent his personal opinions. It's clear that his personal views are not informed by the expertise of the FDA, Pfizer, law enforcement officials, or pharmacists," said spokesman Paul Fitzhenry.

The company has taken note that Rost is consistently identifying himself as a Pfizer executive in public appearances. ''He is clearly identifying himself as a Pfizer employee, while at the same time professing to express his own personal views, and that does represent a conflict," Fitzhenry said.

Asked for comment, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Washington lobbying arm for the industry, did not respond specifically to the defection of one of its own to pro-importation forces. PhRMA has repeatedly stated that importation exposes consumers to a higher degree of risk.

Importation legislation is stalled in the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has said it is ''doubtful" a vote will be held on the issue before Election Day.

It is far from clear that Rost, a midlevel executive, can influence the outcome. He has a medical degree from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. He began a career in pharmaceutical advertising before moving to leadership positions in drug companies in Europe and the United States over the last 14 years. After he left Wyeth in 2001, he went to work for Pharmacia Corp., which was purchased by Pfizer in 2003. Rost said on his rsum that he led a team that tripled sales of a growth hormone, Genotropin, from 2000 to 2003.

His experiences in Europe convinced him that importation from other Western countries can be done safely, he said. So-called ''parallel traders" in Southern Europe routinely ship to countries in the north, where prices are higher. The practice is commonly accepted as safe, Rost said.

Rost blasted drug companies for squeezing wholesale supply to countries where Americans without prescription coverage are ordering at steep discounts in defiance of federal law and the FDA. He did not mention Pfizer by name, but the company that writes Rost's paycheck is the highest-profile company cracking down on Canadian wholesalers suspected of supplying the unauthorized American market.

Angell, the author, said she had never heard of Rost before he wrote his unsolicited Amazon.com review of her book. Asked her reaction to a pharmaceutical industry representative viewing her book favorably, she said she was surprised.

''I wouldn't call that the pharmaceutical industry," she said. ''I would call that one brave man."

Christopher Rowland can be reached at crowland@globe.com.