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Akira Endo, the Japanese microbiologist and biochemist who discovered statins and revolutionized the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease, has died at the age of 90, a former collaborator of his has told AFP.
Another Japanese biochemist who mentored and worked with Endo, Hasumi Keiji, told AFP that the Japanese scientist died last Wednesday. “He was a strong, rigorous man, very insightful. I could see the hidden essence of things,” Hasumi said.
Born on November 14, 1933, into a farming family in Akita, northern Japan, Akira Endo grew up fascinated by the effects of mushrooms and other fungi on living things.
This passion did not abandon him, and at university he read the biography of Alexander Fleming, the British physician and biologist who in 1928 isolated penicillin, the first antibiotic, from a fungus.
In 1957, he joined the Japanese pharmaceutical company Sankyo as a microbiologist, working on lipid metabolism and cholesterol biosynthesis.
He conducted research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York from 1966 to 1968. He was surprised by the large number of elderly and overweight people in the United States and realized the importance of developing cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Back in Misato, Japan, Endo continued his research on mushrooms and molds, convinced that they held the secret to blocking the enzyme involved in cholesterol biosynthesis.
The researcher spent two years analyzing the chemical composition of 6,000 fungi, trying to confirm his theory, until the discovery of mevastatin in 1973, the first representative of the statin class with the ability to reduce the level of LDL (bad cholesterol) in the blood.
It was not until 1987 that Merck & Co. launched the first commercialized statin, lovastatin. More than 200 million people worldwide take this drug, and its market value is about $15 billion.
Overreact
After massive use of these drugs, controversies over harmful side effects or ineffectiveness have multiplied in many countries, making many patients reluctant to take these drugs.
However, according to a meta-analysis published in the European Heart Journal in 2022, which took into account 176 studies on the topic and was based on data from 4 million patients, statin intolerance is overestimated and overdiagnosed.
Endo has received several honors for his groundbreaking work, including the Albert Lasker Award in 2008 for medical and clinical research.
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