1978

Al Alberts and his team at Merck Research Labs discover Aspergillus terreus, a common soil microorganism active against a targeted rate-limiting enzyme (HMG-CoA reductase) in cholesterol synthesis  lovastatin (Mevacor), the first statin in the world to become a drug. This discovery vindicated Roy Vagelos’s commitment to molecular (i.e., enzyme) targeting – i.e., finding a target enzyme molecule in the disease process and then finding a substance that inhibits it – as the preferred scientific strategy for discovering new drugs (Vagelos & Galambos, 132-136). But the drug wasn‘t approved by the FDA until 1987 (155), and was followed several years later by MRL’s second HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, simvastatin (Zocor).