Lilly, Novo Drugs’ Cancer Tie Unproven, Researcher Says

Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co.’s Byetta and Novo Nordisk A/S’s Victoza, two insulin-raising drugs, don’t appear to carry an increased risk of cancer based on available data, according to a German researcher.

“The bulk of findings tends to speak against such an association,” Michael Nauck, head of the Diabeteszentrum Bad Lauterberg in Harz, Germany, said in an interview. “There is no general agreement.” Nauck debated Peter Butler of the University of California at Los Angeles at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting today on whether so-called GLP-1 therapies increase cancer risk.