Mevastatin (compactin, ML-236B) is a hypolipidemic agent that belongs to the statins class. It was isolated from the mold Penicillium citrinum by Akira Endo in the 1970s, and he identified it as a HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, i.e., a statin. Mevastatin might be considered the first statin drug; clinical trials on mevastatin were performed in the late 1970s in Japan, but it was never marketed. The first statin drug available to the general public was lovastatin. In vitro, it has antiproliferative properties. High doses inhibit growth and proliferation of melanoma cells.