Can Pfizer Get Over Its Anger and Utilize the Leverage It Has With Rost?

It's extremely difficult to ignore the fact that Fortune has done a flattering feature story on Peter Rost. Rost could be on the verge of parlaying his position in the media from "one hit blogging wonder" into "permanent fixture that all drug companies will have to deal with in the future."

Whether Rost can successfully negotiate the transition over the next couple of years will be interesting. (It won't be a secret, of course. He'll tell us all about it whether we like it or not.) My money says Rost could be in this for the long run.

There is, of course, one variable -- his two ongoing lawsuits against Pfizer, which to my knowledge are both unresolved.

What Pfizer's general counsel's office has been ignoring so far -- probably because the lawyers there find Rost infuriating -- is that they actually have a fantastic opportunity in front of them that no other drug company has: The ability to tie Rost up in a legal settlement that would prevent him from blogging about Pfizer ever again.

If Pfizer is ever able to swallow its pride and offer Rost a decent settlement, it is highly likely that they would require that he never say a public word again about the company. And given the scale of pharma settlements, it is highly likely, IMHO, that Rost would feel duty bound to accept those terms. He has a house, wife and kids to provide for after all, and bloggging and publishing don't make people rich.

Ironically, there are several pharma companies -- AZ among them -- who would love to be in Pfizer's position right now for that exact reason.

Comments

[John Mack]

Jim,

It's hard to argue against accepting lots of cash in return for silence. Rost would always have other pharma companies to focus on and he may building that franchise now.

So, Peter Rost will survive.

But would the brand "Question Authority" survive?

It would have to be "Question Authority, Except the Largest Pharma Company in the World!"

[TIM]

Pfizer wants to keep him silent now before Mr Rost gets requested to appear in MDL1699 Bextra/Celebrex liability case.
He may know something as to what Pfizer new about their CoxII products.

[Jim Edwards]

Let's not overblow Rost's role at Pfizer -- what Rost knows about the Bextra/Celebrex liability issue is probably not very much. His knowledge of the financial relationship between the Celebrex franchise and Express Scripts was minimal, and he only had that knowledge because Pfizer was using Rost's Genotropin franchise to sweeten its relationship with Express. Allegedly!