• More Blogs
• Observations »
• Bering in Mind »
• Cross-check »
• Extinction Countdown »
• Solar at Home »
• Expeditions »
• Guest Blog »
• Anecdotes from the Archive »

A Japanese scientist who discovered an obscure cholesterol-fighting fungus will be awarded "America's Nobel" for his contribution to today's blockbuster statin drugs.

Akira Endo, 74, will receive the Lasker Award and its $300,000 prize on Sept. 25 in New York. Some 75 Lasker awardees have gone on to win Nobels.

In 1973, after sifting through 6,000 fungi, Endo hit upon a purified form of Penicillium citrinum as a fungus that blocked reductase, an enzyme that produces cholesterol. Endo and a colleague started giving it to animals and humans, ultimately finding that it reduced LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, by 27 percent, according to a press release. Drug giants including Merck (which in the 1970s had an agreement with Sankyo, the Japanese company Endo was working for), Pfizer and others went on to produce statins, which are now the world's second-most commonly prescribed medicines after cancer drugs, according to IMS Health. Pfizer's Lipitor is the top-selling statin in the U.S., with sales last year of $13.5 billion; statins overall were a $33.7 billion industry in 2007, IMS says.

Despite their popularity, statins have been criticized (and are now being studied) for side effects, including muscle weakness, pain, fatigue, peripheral neuropathy, memory and mood problems. And while they have been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack, the drugs haven't been proven to prolong life or to improve its quality, the New York Times noted in a recent review of medical studies.

"This is something the jury takes very seriously," said Lasker Foundation President Maria Freire. She referred further questions to jury chair Joseph Goldstein, who did not immediately return calls or emails. Neither Endo, now director of Biopharm Research Laboratories in Tokyo, nor his daughter, who is helping to coordinate his media interviews, immediately responded to e-mails seeking comment.

This year's other awardees include Stanley Falkow for his research on antibiotic resistance, and three scientists who discovered tiny genetic molecules called microRNAs in animals and plants. The scientists are Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun of the U.S. and David Baulcombe of Great Britain.

A 2006 profile of Endo noted that he briefly took Mevacor, a Merck statin produced with a fungal byproduct close to the one he discovered. But Endo stopped taking it, and when a doctor found he still had elevated LDL, he decreased his levels by exercising, he told the Wall Street Journal.

When asked why, he gave the Journal a cryptic answer in the form of a Japanese proverb: "The indigo dyer wears white trousers."

(Image courtesy of Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation)

2 Comments

1. 1. billyname 10:47 PM 9/13/08

   INDIGO

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. Guillermo57 in reply to billyname 06:45 PM 9/16/08

   Endo must have experienced some of the "rare but potentially very serious side effects" that we hear referenced at the end of the numerous TV ads for the Statin drugs, and this caused him to discontinue taking them. Too bad he didn't warn the rest of us as to what might happen. Before he is given an award for the discovery, perhaps he can develop an antidote treatment for those of us suffering from the "rare but potentially very serious side effects". I think his cryptic comment as to the "indigo dyer wears white pants" is very revealing.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this