Computers inside Pfizer’s network have been busted sending out spam touting its flagship drug Viagra’s effectiveness, not to mention ads for cheap Rolexes and shady junk stock. According to Wired,
Pfizer’s computers appear to have been infected with malware that has transformed them into zombie computers sending spam at the behest of a hacker.
Rick Wesson, CEO of Support Intelligence,a small San Francisco-based security company that alerted Wired News to the problem, believes that
Pfizer computers have been spamming inboxes for the last six months and that he’s kept 600 spam messages sent from company computers. He says 138 different Pfizer IP addresses have been blacklisted by various groups, but adds that he can’t estimate the number of infected machines without more information or installing monitoring equipment on the edge of Pfizer’s networks.
Despite several warnings from Support Intelligence, Pfizer has been reticient to acknowledge the problem. According to Pharmalot,
On Tuesday morning between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., Pfizer’s network sent at least 20 messages about sex and penises, according to Wesson. The number of infected machines is impossible to determine, because much of the traffic comes from behind a firewall that obscures the machines’ internal IP addresses.
Hmmm … is it really the result of malware — or is this perhaps a black-ops marketing program within Pfizer?
Although Exubera is turning out to be a flop, you can’t say it’s not good for something. Turns out it’s good for disciplining deadbeat husbands, fighting off dogs while jogging, and rolling dough.
According to analysts, Pfizer was slow to market with Exubera, initially assigning it to a sales team that was not prepared to explain it to doctors, and then not beginning to advertise it until this summer. Some doctors complain the Exubera inhaler costs too much and isn’t covered by many insurers. It also looks like something you would find in a college frat house.
Pfizer vice chairman David Shedlarz responded to this uproar by saying, “Exubera was not our finest day. We made a lot of mistakes with what is a profoundly important therapeutic.”
[Update: Neglected to mention our blatant ripoff of Pharma Giles. We hope this link helps get you back up to #30 in the rankings 
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According to Peter Rost of BrandweekNRX and “Rost Watch” fame, Pfizer has announced that it will be terminating three execs in the HIV drug sales division. Rost says that
two of these individuals have previously been mentioned in e-mails related to allegations about illegal premarketing of the HIV drug maraviroc, which is one of Pfizer’s most interesting new drug prospects.
An FDA panel that had endorsed maraviroc ruled to delay the release of the drug after the premarketing allegations surfaced.
More at PeterNRX.
Pfizer took a pounding in the stock market today after announcing poor earnings. The drug giant blamed increased competition from generics and lower than anticipated earnings from Lipitor, it’s bread-and-butter brand. According to Reuters,
The world’s biggest drug maker, whose shares fell more than 3 percent in morning trading, said it earned $1.27 billion, or 18 cents per share in the second quarter. That compares with $2.42 billion, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier…
“I think this is a disappointing result, particularly relative to their first-quarter report,” Leerink Swann & Co. analyst Seamus Fernandez said.
Yep, I think I’d be disappointed.
Recently, a Pfizer employee’s spouse loaded unauthorized software onto the employee’s laptop, and 17,000 current and former Pfizer employees had their names and Social Security numbers copied.
According to Peter Rost, Pfizer didn’t care enough about its employees to make certain that such critical data was properly encrypted:
What they can and should do is to assure there are appropriate routines and encryption in place to protect sensitive data even if such data is leaked. Clearly Pfizer didn’t care enough to do that.
Pfizer has since offered employees a free credit monitoring program for one year.
The eDrugSearch Blog has learned that the identity thieves have agreed to wait exactly one year and one day before attempting to use any Pfizer employee’s identity.
And for that, we are eternally grateful. If it weren’t for Peter and others like him, there would be little rhetorical counterpoint to the misinformation machine that is Big Pharma.
A recent article in Fortune tells the world what many of us in pharma blogging have known for a long time:
When Rost is on his game, he is a force to be reckoned with. And he is part of a larger phenomenon that is forcing Big Pharma into a new era of accountability.
Also from the piece:
Rost’s many critics would love to be able to dismiss him as an embittered crank. But they can’t. The blog has clout. As a conduit for Big Pharma whistleblowers, it has taken some notable scalps. Earlier this spring, for example, Rost’s muckraking spurred congressional curiosity; federal investigators are now looking into AstraZeneca for Arimidex-related marketing irregularities. Another series of blog entries resulted in a government probe into Pfizer’s marketing activities. And a dispatch on dubious sales practices led to at least one sales director’s ouster.
We were also delighted to see mention of our favorite “witty Brit,” Jack Friday at PharmaGossip.
Congrats to Peter, Jack and to all pharma bloggers who are committed to holding Big Pharma accountable for its actions.
A new Viagra commercial doesn’t want you to understand the product — just buy it. As the New York Times reports:
The ads feature middle-aged men and women talking in a made-up language, save for one word.
‘Viagra spanglecheff?’ says a man to a friend at a bowling alley.
‘Spanglecheff?’ his friend asks.
‘Minky Viagra noni noni boo-boo plats!’ the first man replies, with a grin that suggests he is not talking about the drug’s side effects. The ads end with the slogan, ‘The International Language of Viagra.’…
Maxine Thomas, an executive at Taxi, the agency in Toronto that produced the campaign, said the ads take advantage of Viagra’s name recognition. “It’s not as though we need to tell people what it does, because they already know,” she said. “Consumers can fill in the blank for themselves.”
This ad has gotten widespread attention, we believe, because of its sad symbolism. The pharmaceutical industry spins itself silly trying to convince us that DTC advertisements serve an important educational role for consumers — and then they put this kind of crap on TV.
Truly infuriating — particularly when you consider the public good those billions of wasted advertising dollars could be doing in areas such as R&D and lower retail drug prices.
Keep buying online, folks. Clearly, Big Pharma has no interest in giving you price relief; you’re going to have to go out and get it for yourself.
Ed Silverman at Pharmalot posted an interesting interview excerpt from Ken Carter, CEO of Avalon Pharmaceuticals. Ken was asked by Pharmaceutical Executive how he would change things at Pfizer if he were in Jeff Kindler’s shoes. Here’s his response:
One of the things I’ve seen pretty consistently over the last 10-15 years is that pipelines seem to be driven by short-term vision. That view leads to things like mergers and acquisitions in the hopes that the combined pipeline will be stronger than the individual pipelines. The problem is that the combined R&D capabilities aren’t any better. On top of that, once these mergers occur, it takes between one and two years to integrate the early-stage discovery functions.
If I were running Pfizerâ€â€or a top-five pharmaceutical companyâ€â€I’d resist the shareholder pressure to try to address my near-term pipeline issues and instead try to create a more realistic strategy for a 10-year plan to generate medium-stage pipeline products by emphasizing internal R&D.
A variety of other execs also provide thoughtful responses. So, how would YOU change Pfizer if YOU were Jeff Kindler?
Peter Rost is claiming he will soon be back in the drug industry, so I am here to spread the word. I guess Peter figures, with the way things are going for Big Pharma right now, why not?
Here is the letter he worked up to send to the drug companies, and I must say, how could they resist?
Dear [First Name],
Since you work in the communications and media area, I figured you might have heard about me, and could assist forwarding my CV to your CEO with your recommendation to interview me for a leadership position in your organization.
The fact that I have been vindicated and proven right about what I did at Pfizer (see below), should make me a very attractive employee for anyone in the drug industry.
Let’s be straight here: I’ve clearly been blacklisted for more than a year after Pfizer fired me for blowing the whistle on illegal marketing, without a single job interview, in spite of the best performance within all of Pfizer. (See attached CV.) But now things are different. It turns out that I was right and Pharmacia was wrong. After all, otherwise Pfizer wouldn’t have paid a $35 million fine.
And I thought that since all drug company CEO’s talk about how ethical they are, and how it is always prior management that was guilty of whatever fines they had to pay; perhaps someone in the current management would like to hire me? I mean, that would be like putting the hiring decision where there’s currently just PR-spin.
So, I figured, YOUR COMPANY might be jumping for joy to hire me. And you should probably respond ASAP, so you beat the others to the punch. After all, what better PR could you get for your organization than hiring a guy who did everything right and delivered the best financial results? As a PR professional, you probably realize this would dispel the myth that your company is one of the crooks. I guess the only risk is if you don’t hire me, everyone will wonder what you have to hide . . . but let’s face it, as someone working with public relations for your company, you are keenly aware that only 7% of Americans in the 2006 Harris poll think drug companies “are generally honest and trustworthy,†so there is only upside to you responding to this letter. Because, to be very frank, based on that poll your department has completely failed in its mission and here’s your chance to do something about that.
By the way, not only did my unit during my last year in charge deliver the best financial result within all of Pharmacia/Pfizer based on objective sales data vs. forecast (comparing products with sales of more than $100 million), I also doubled sales in two years, as a general manager for northern Europe, and moved one affiliate from #19 to #7.
And if you don’t have any permanent position available, I’d be very pleased to do some consulting work for you, or come in and entertain your leadership team with a hard-hitting presentation which was voted #1 during a recent industry seminar with drug company PR-professionals (evaluation letter from meeting organizers available upon request).
I’m looking forward to hearing back from you, very soon. And, please don’t be afraid to forward this e-mail. At a minimum your CEO will be entertained.
Regards,
Peter Rost
Peter’s right. It sounds perfectly logical to me — and would be big news if he got hired.
Of course, if the pharmaceutical industry ever began behaving logically, that would be big news in itself.
From Ed Silverman at Pharmalot:
Two separate deals are reached with the Department of Justice over a celebrated case that was initiated by Peter Rost, the notorious whistleblower, who worked at Pharmacia before it was acquired by Pfizer and was responsible for overseeing the marketing of the Genotropin human growth hormone.
In the first settlement, Pfizer’s Pharmacia & Upjohn subsidiary agrees to plead guilty to a single count of offering to an outside vendor “renumeration” in the form of a contract. The contract was awarded the vendor in 2000 to manage a Genotropin patient assistance program as an inducement for recommending the purchase of Pharmacia drugs. The unit has no “operational role” at Pfizer anymore, but will pay a $19.7 million fine.
In the other settlement, another Pharmacia & Upjohn unit signed a Deferred Prosecution Agreement that includes a $15 million fine over improper promotion of Genotropin. In its statement, Pfizer says it discovered the violation and reported it to the Justice Department and the Office of the Inspector General, although Rost maintains he uncovered the wrongdoing.
Kudos to Peter Rost for making sure at least one of the drug manufacturers is held accountable for its actions.
You can read the Pfizer press release here.
