TOKYO, June 11Japanese professor emeritus of biochemistry Akira Endo, who discovered the first statin — an inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase — and thereby paved the way for the development of statin drugs, has died at the age of 90 , reports NHK TV channel.
According to a source close to the family, Endo died on June 5 at a nursing home in Tokyo.
Akira Endo was born in 1933 in Akita Prefecture, after graduating from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at Tohoku University, he worked for a pharmaceutical company, then became a professor at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at Tokyo University of Agricultural and Technological Sciences.
In the early 1970s, he began developing a drug to lower blood cholesterol levels, and in 1973 he discovered that the substance “statin” produced by blue mold suppresses the synthesis of cholesterol in the body and significantly reduces its level in the blood.
For his achievements, including the discovery of the statin, Akira Endo was awarded a number of international awards.