A Lone Voice Raises Alarms on Lucrative Diabetes Drugs

From NYTimes.com

By ANDREW POLLACK
Published: May 30, 2013

Dr. Peter C. Butler heads endocrinology at U.C.L.A. and is a former editor of Diabetes, 
the American Diabetes Association journal.

LOS ANGELES — Dr. Peter C. Butler initially declined a request by the drug maker Merck to test whether its new diabetes drug, Januvia, could help stave off the disease in rats.

“I said, I’m not interested in your money, go away,” Dr. Butler recalled.

Merck no doubt now wishes it had. When Dr. Butler finally agreed to do the study, he found worrisome changes in the pancreases of the rats that could lead to pancreatic cancer. The discovery, in early 2008, turned Dr. Butler into a crusader whose follow-up studies now threaten the future of not only Januvia but all the drugs in its class, which have sales of more than $9 billion annually and are used by hundreds of thousands of people with Type 2 diabetes.

“I knew some stuff that I thought was a worry and I was obliged to pursue it,” said Dr. Butler, the chairman of endocrinology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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