Announcing the Anitschkow Prize 2025
We are delighted to announce that the 2025 EAS Anitschkow Prize, the Society’s most prestigious award, will be presented to Dr. Paul M. Ridker, MD, MPH.
Dr. Ridker serves as the Eugene Braunwald Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and directs the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Over a remarkable 30-year career, Dr. Ridker and his collaborators have made groundbreaking contributions to cardiovascular medicine, including:
- Providing the first proof-of-principle for the inflammation hypothesis of atherothrombosis in humans.
- Demonstrating that statin therapy is both lipid-lowering and anti-inflammatory.
- Developing the first FDA-approved diagnostic test for vascular inflammation (hsCRP).
- Identifying the first proven anti-inflammatory treatment for heart disease (canakinumab).
- Introducing the concept of “residual inflammatory risk” into clinical practice worldwide.
On multiple occasions Dr. Ridker’s work has altered clinical guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of atherosclerotic disease – the most common cause of death on a global basis. As a direct consequence of this work, multiple novel anti-inflammatory agents targeting interrelated aspects of heart disease ranging from chronic atherosclerosis to acute ischemia to congestive heart failure are under development at nearly all major pharmaceutical companies worldwide.
Dr. Ridker is additionally known for his leadership of over 15 major multi-national randomized clinical trials including PREVENT, JUPITER, SPIRE-1, SPIRE-2, CANTOS, CIRT, PROMINENT, the ongoing ATRIUM trial (addressing abatacept for immune checkpoint inhibitor myocarditis), and the ongoing ZEUS and HERMES trials (addressing IL-6 inhibition to reduce vascular event rates in the settings of CKD and HFpEF).
Continuously funded by the NIH and the recipient of multiple honorary degrees and international awards, Dr. Ridker is a Distinguished Scientist of the American Heart Association and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, USA.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Ridker on this well-deserved recognition of his exceptional contributions to cardiovascular research and care.
Dr. Ridker will deliver his Anitschkow Lecture during the Opening Ceremony at the 2025 EAS Congress in Glasgow on May 4, 2025.