Did Rost Just Pull a Mike Huckabee?

Yesterday, I received an email from Peter Rost entitled "Schering-Plough tries to silence upcoming BrandweekNRX article," in which he summarized correspondence between him and some lawyer at Schering-Plough regarding an expose he said he was writing for BrandweekNRx/BrandWeek. I believe the documents in that correspondence were also posted on NRx for a short time yesterday, but I can no longer find that post.

Over the weekend, Rost wrote a letter to Ken Banta, a strategic adviser to Schering-Plough CEO Fred Hassan, asking him to confirm or deny a couple of statements in an "upcoming story we are writing for BrandWeekNRx/BrandWeek." The first three statements made some damaging revelations about Fred Hassan's wife and her shady-sounding real estate deals involving Schering-Plough properties. Here's Rost's email to Schering-Plough regarding that story (click image to enlarge and read):

[Sorry, that image is no longer available!!! You'll have to take my word for it -- also, see Rost's comment to this post.]

The problem is that Rost hasn't written that story. He has, however, written an excellent story focusing on Hassan and what a terrible job he's doing (see "Did Fred Hassan use smoke-and-mirrors to 'turn around' both Pharmacia and Schering-Plough?").

"This is the story Schering-Plough tried to stop," Rost claimed in email I received this morning. But there is no mention of Mrs. Hassan in the story.

I think this may be the first case of a "Mike Huckabee" style withdrawal of a negative attack piece in Pharma Blogosphere^TM history!

P.S. Peter, I think you're doing a great job! Keep up the good work.

If It Wasn't for Dr. Nissen, I Wouldn't Have an Informed Opinion at All!

Do you take Zetia like me? Now that there's all this news about how the ENHANCE trial failed (see "The Controversial Vytorin Trial Ends In Failure"), I'm not sure what to do!

The only expert opinion I've heard is from Dr. Steven Nissen (see below), head of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, who has called for a "moratorium" on the use of Vytorin and Zetia. "In the absence of any evidence of a clinical benefit," said Dr. Nissen, "these drugs should now be used as a last resort."

MY cardiologist hasn't called me or emailed me and the Zetia Web site is mum on the whole subject!

I think this lack of attention to patients like me from our own physicians and from the drug companies whose products I depend upon is SHAMEFUL! or worse!

Please read more about why I feel this way in today's post to Pharma Marketing Blog ("Should I Stop Taking Zetia?").