1999 Recipients

For development of HMG CoA reductase inhibitors.

Akira Endo, born in 1933, obtained a BA at Tohoku University(Faculty of Agriculture) in Sendai in 1957 and a PhD in biochemistry at the same university in 1966. From 1957 to 1978 he worked as a biochemist at Sankyo Co. He spent two years (1966-1968) at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York as a research associate. From 1979 to 1997 he worked as an associate professor (1979-1986) and later a full professor (1986-1997) at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), and after official retirement, besides becoming the president of the Biopharm Research Laboratories Inc.(Tokyo), he serves as a Professor on Special Mission at Tohoku University and Waseda University and a Visiting Professor at Kanazawa University and Hitotsubashi University. Prizes and honors received include the1966 Young Investigator Award, Japan Society of Agricultural Chemistry, the 1987 Heinrich Wieland Prize (Germany), the 1987 Toray Science-Technology Prize (Japan), the 2000 Alpert Prize (U.S.A.), the 2006 Japan Prize (Japan), the 2006 Massry Prize (U.S.A.), the 2006 Honorary Citizen of Akita Prefecture (Japan), the 2008 Distinguished Professor Emeritus, TUAT, the 2008 Albert Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award (U.S.A.), the 2011 Person of Cultural Merit (Japan), the 2012 Inductee, National Inventors Hall of Fame (U.S.A.), the 2012 Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Pennsylvania (U.S.A.), the 2012 the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star (Japan).