Akira Endo, the Father of Statins, Dies

First Statin Marketed

Subsequently, dramatic reductions in cholesterol levels observed in patients prompted Merck to conduct large-scale clinical trials of lovastatin in high-risk patients and long-term toxicity studies in dogs in 1984.

It was confirmed that the drug significantly reduced cholesterol levels and was well tolerated. No tumors were detected.

Lovastatin received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to become the first marketed statin in September 1987.

Dr. Endo received numerous awards for his work, including the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research in 2008 and the Outstanding Achievement Award from the International Atherosclerosis Society in 2009.

This story was translated from the Medscape French edition using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.