HealthTalker CEO Andy Levitt continues his trek across the US, hitting a slew of pharma meetings and speaking at a handful of them. Here’s his wrap up of the DTC Perspectives conference in Livingston, New Jersey.

The pharma Fall conference season is in full swing, and today I am happy to be in New Jersey to attend Bob Ehrlich’s semi-annual DTC program with about 200 other pharma-focused colleagues over the next two days. This year’s theme is “DTC in the Era of Consumer Choice.”

On many levels, I was excited to hear what presenters had to say this afternoon. There was wide consensus from each speaker that consumers are in control of how they choose to consume media. Health-focused consumers, much like the general population, have an endless amount of media distractions and choices, making the job of marketers that much more challenging to capture their precious and limited attention. This harsh reality calls into question the value of traditional reach and frequency media buys, and places greater emphasis on engagement and impact. (more…)

Two weeks ago, Shire received a warning letter for posting a sponsored testimonial on YouTube without including risk information. Shire was very open when I called them up and admitted that the video was posted by accident and immediately removed when it was brought to the company’s attention.

While I’m not 100 percent positive, it looks like this might have been the first time FDA actually name-dropped a social networking service in a warning letter. Which poses the question: Is FDA watching YouTube, and what does this mean for pharma? (more…)

The Wall Street Journal posted the full video of the new Lipitor television spot. It’s very similar to the old Dr. Jarvik ads, but without the celebrity spokesperson. Pharm Exec will have more on the campaign relaunch in Wednesday’s newsletter.