Akira Endo obituary

Despite not being recognised at the time, in 2006 Akira Endo was honoured with the Japan prize and in 2008 received a Lasker award, sometimes described as ‘the American Nobel’. Photograph: JIJI Press/AFP/Getty Images

The Japanese biochemist Akira Endo, who has died aged 90, was the creator of the first statin, a drug that lowers low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, through his pioneering work with fungal extracts. Endo believed – and eventually proved – that fungi could yield a substance to block cholesterol production.

Known as “bad” cholesterol, LDL cholesterol narrows the arteries, raising the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke. First licensed in 1987, statins were a game-changer in the treatment of heart disease. Today, approximately 200 million people take them daily and they are the most commonly prescribed drugs in the UK.