Endo was born on a farm in Northern Japan and had an interest in fungi already at a young age, being an admirer of Alexander Fleming.

[7] Successful discoveries in this field gained him the credit to move to New York City in 1966, and spend two years at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine as a research associate[1] working on enzymes[4] and cholesterol.

In 1971 he found a culture broth with citrinin had potent inhibitory activity against HMG-CoA reductase and lowered serum cholesterol levels in rats, but research was suspended because of renal toxicity.

Endo studied 6,000 compounds, of which three extrolites from Penicillium citrinum mold isolated from a rice sample collected at a grain shop in Kyoto showed an effect.

[3] "The millions of people whose lives will be extended through statin therapy owe it all to Akira Endo," according to Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for related work on cholesterol.