Ferid Murad, an Albanian-American pharmacologist and one of the inventors of Viagra, has died at the age of 87.
A close relative of the renowned physician announced the news on social media, stating that Ferid Murad had died at his residence in Menlo Park.
Ferid Murad, originally from Gostivar, was born in Whiting, Indiana in 1936. He attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where he graduated in 1958, and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he earned a Ph.D. in science.
Ferid Murad began studying the role of nitric oxide in the cardiovascular system in the early 1970s and discovered that it serves a crucial role in relaxing blood vessels and improving circulation.
The medication was patented in 1996 and approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating erectile dysfunction on March 27, 1998, making it the first drug to address these issues.
In 1998, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for this discovery, which led to the development of novel drugs for the treatment of heart diseases and other cardiovascular diseases.