Professor Steven Nissen
Disclosure details
Financial disclosures: Dr. Nissen reports that the Cleveland Clinic Center for Clinical Research has received funding to perform clinical trials from Abbvie, AstraZeneca, Amgen, Arrowhead, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Esperion, Medtronic, MyoKardia, New Amsterdam Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Pfizer, and Silence Therapeutics. Dr. Nissen is involved in these clinical trials but receives no personal remuneration for his participation. Dr. Nissen consults for these pharmaceutical companies, but does not accept compensation.Chief Academic Officer
Heart, Vascular, and Thoracic Institute
Lewis and Patricia Dickey Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine
Professor of Medicine
Cleveland Clinic Lerner School of Medicine
at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
Steven E. Nissen MD is Chief Academic Officer for the Heart and Vascular Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, the Lewis and Patricia Dickey Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine and Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. From 2006 to 2019, he served as Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. In 2006-2007 he served as President of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the professional society representing American cardiologists.
His initial research focused on application of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging to the assessment of progression and regression of coronary atherosclerosis, conducting more than a dozen randomized controlled trials, most published in the NEJM or JAMA. More recently, he has served as Study Chairman for large global cardiovascular outcomes trials, most studying lipid modifying therapies. He has directed or is directing clinical trials of several therapies for patients with elevated lipoprotein(a) including studies of pelacarsen, zerlasiran, and lepodisiran. He has also published extensively on the topic of obesity and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Nissen’s contributions to scientific literature include more than 650 journal articles and 60 book chapters. He is co-author of a book for patients with heart disease, Heart411 published by Crown Books.
Dr. Nissen works closely with pharmaceutical companies on the development of new therapies for cardiovascular disease, but maintains a longstanding policy of requiring companies to donate all related honoraria directly to charity so that he receives neither income, nor a tax deduction.
He has also written extensively on the subject of drug safety. In 2001, he co-authored the first manuscript (JAMA) that raised concerns about the cardiovascular safety of rofecoxib (Vioxx™), which was withdrawn from the market 3 years later. In 2007, he authored a NEJM manuscript that demonstrated that the widely used diabetes drug rosiglitazone (Avandia™) raised the risk of myocardial infarction, eventually leading in 2010 to withdrawal of the drug in Europe and severe restrictions in the US.
Dr. Nissen served as a member of the CardioRenal Advisory Panel of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for 5 years, and Chairman the final year of his membership. He continues to serve as Advisor to several FDA committees as a “Special Government Employee”. In July 2008, while serving as guest member of the Endocrine and Metabolism Advisory Panel, he recommended a new approach for approval of diabetes drugs, which was ultimately adopted by the Agency in December 2008.
Dr. Nissen is also known for his role in public policy discussions. He has testified in both the Senate (Health Education and Labor Committee) and House of Representatives (Energy and Commerce Committee) on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy. He was actively involved in discussions with Congress on the FDA Amendments Act of 2007 that added additional regulatory authority for the Agency.
In 2007, Time Magazine selected Dr. Nissen as one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Beginning in 2015, he was named by Thompson-Reuters as one of the world’s most highly cited physician-scientists.
