SUMMARY

At breakfast recently in one of his favorite coffee shops, Jim Avery, professor of advertising at the University of Oklahoma, was talking with some friends who he knew had some health problems. Avery mentioned that there were a couple of recent articles in newspapers on cholesterol drugs and clinical trials. No one had seen or even heard of these articles and Avery was a bit taken aback that he was the only one who had seen what he judged to be fairly important information on healthcare.

Avery took the opportunity to turn the breakfast meeting into a little impromptu focus group. This article summarizes what he learned.

Topics and issues covered include:

• Cholesterol Treatment in the News
• Surprising Lack of Trust
• Should I Stop Taking Zetia?
• Surrogate Endpoints "Miss the Point"
• FDA Not Doing Its Job?