Peter Rost, former vice president at Pfizer, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the company on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Baltimore Sun reports (Baltimore Sun, 12/14). On Nov. 30, Pfizer sent a letter of dismissal to Rost after the Department of Justice chose not to intervene in a whistleblower lawsuit he had filed against the company in June 2003. Rost's lawsuit alleged that Pharmacia, which Pfizer acquired in 2003, engaged in inappropriate sales and marketing of the growth hormone Genotropin before the merger. Rost, a vice president of corporate marketing at Pharmacia, remained on the Pfizer payroll because he received federal protection under his whistleblower suit. After more than two years of investigation, the whistleblower suit was unsealed on Nov. 10 when DOJ chose not to join it. Pfizer spokesperson Paul Fitzhenry said that Rost was being terminated because he had failed to receive a vice president-level position with Pfizer after the company acquired Pharmacia. According to Fitzhenry, Rost is being offered a severance package that is "consistent with that of employees of Pharmacia who did not remain with Pfizer after Pfizer's acquisition of Pharmacia in 2003" (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 12/2). Rost's wrongful termination suit accuses Pfizer of retaliating against him by denying him positions for which he was qualified (Reuters/New York Times, 12/14). The suit alleges that Pfizer violated the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act and the whistleblowing prohibition of the federal False Claims Act, which Rost says protect him from termination (Baltimore Sun, 12/14). Rost seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive monetary damages. Jon Green, Rost's lawyer, said, "They won't give him his job back, and he wants to be compensated. He'll never work in the pharmaceutical industry again. He's been looking for a job. Nobody even wants to interview him." Fitzhenry called the lawsuit "baseless" and said the company will "vigorously defend the case" (Jordan, Newark Star-Ledger, 12/14).

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View drug information on Genotropin.