Prof. Gilbert O. Kokwaro
	Professor of Pharmaceutics, University of Nairobi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Scientific Officer, African Centre for Clinical Trials (ACCT) Head of the Clinical Pharmacology, Molecular Biology and Parasitology Research Group at The KEMRI/ Wellcome Trust Collaborative Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya

Contact information:
Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmacy Practice
Faculty of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences,
University of Nairobi,
PO Box 19676-00202,
Nairobi, KENYA
Tel (Office): +254 20 2721215
Tel (Home): +254 20 2718925
Mobile: +254 722323651
Email: GKokwaro@nairobi.kemri-wellcome.org

Research Profile
Professor Kokwaro's area of research is the Clinical Pharmacology of drugs used in the management of severe malaria and associated complications in children. He has received research grants from the Wellcome Trust and the World Health Organization (W.H.O) for research on severe and currently supervising/co-supervising three PhD students.

He has over 70 publications in reputable refereed Journals. Working together with Drs Alexis Nzila and Edward Mberu, they recently filed for patents in the U.K for two novel antimalarial compounds with which they are planning to do further research.

Background
Professor Gilbert Kokwaro, Kenyan, born 1954, obtained his Bachelor of Pharmacy (1978) and then MSc (1982) at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. He then went for a PhD in Pharmacokinetics at the University Wales (1987) and Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool (1991-1993) in the United Kingdom.

He has since attended several short courses at the Royal Post Graduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, University of London (Clinical Pharmacology), Stowe Summer School for Drug Metabolism, Stowe, UK (Drug Metabolism) and at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands (Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic modeling).

Prof. Kokwaro was Chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmacy Practice, University of Nairobi from 1995 to 1999. He has served as the external examiner in Pharmaceutics, Pharmacy Practice and Pharmaceutical Microbiology at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania between 1989 and 1999; 2004 and 2005, and in Pharmacology, Moi University School of Medicine (2005-Present). He has also examined Msc and PhD Theses from several Universities including University of Cape Town, and Basel. He has trained several students (from Mali, The republic of Sudan, Malawi, Tanzania and Ethiopia) in drug analysis at his clinical pharmacology laboratory in Nairobi and Kilifi, Kenya.

He is currently Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of Nairobi, visiting Professor of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, University of Liverpool, U.K., Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Scientific Officer, African Centre for Clinical Trials (ACCT), and Head of the Clinical Pharmacology, Molecular Biology and Parasitology Research Group at the KEMRI/ Wellcome Trust Collaborative Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya. He is also the current Chairman of the sub-committee on Clinical Trails, Ministry of Health, Nairobi, and a member of the National Quality Control Laboratory, Nairobi. He is one of the African representatives in ANTIMAL, a consortium of European and African institutions working on a wide range of projects aimed at discovery and development of novel antimalarial drugs. It is funded by the EU.

Prof. Kokwaro was the Chairman of the International Academic Board, The Tropical Institute for Community Health and Development in Africa (TICH) (2000-2005), and is currently Executive Director of the Centre for Drug Management and Policy (CEDMAP), and Chief Executive Officer, African Centre for Clinical Trials (ACCT) Nairobi, Kenya. He is a former member (1999-2004) of the “Medicines for Malaria Venture” (MMV) Expert Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC), based in Geneva and currently he is a member of the Malaria Expert Advisory Board for Pharmaceutical Company, GlaxoSmithKline, and the Kenya National Academy of Science. He was a member of a Scoping and Design Team (Chaired by Professor Patrick Vaughan), commissioned by the Wellcome Trust and DFID in 2005, on Collaborative Health Research Capacity Strengthening Programme in Kenya and Malawi. Subsequently, he has been instrumental, first as the Chairman of a Task Force, and currently as Chairman of the Interim Executive Committee, in developing a proposal for Health Research Capacity Strengthening in Kenya, for consideration for funding by the Wellcome Trust, DFID and IDRC over a period of 5 years.

His research is in the Clinical Pharmacology of Drugs used in the management of severe malaria and associated complications in children. He has received research grants from the Wellcome Trust and the WHO-MIM/TDR for research on severe malaria in African children. He has supervised six PhD and three Masters of Science students and is currently supervising/co-supervising three PhD students

Prof. Kokwaro has over 70 publications in reputable refereed Journals. Together with Drs Alexis Nzila and Dr Edward Mberu they have filed two patents in the U.K for novel antimalarial compounds which they intend to do further research. His colleague (and former PhD student), Dr. Mberu, carried out a preliminary in vitro work that led to the development of a new antimalarial drug LapDap (chlorproguanil-Dapsone] by GlaxoSmithKline and the University of Liverpool. LapDap is currently being marketed in several African countries including Kenya. He is a referee for several international Journals of Clinical Pharmacology, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics

Current main research areas:

• Clinical pharmacology of anticonvulsants in children with severe malaria.
• Severe acidosis as a complication of severe malaria in African children
• Population pharmacokinetics of aminiglycosides in African children with severe disease
• Biochemical pharmacology of novel resistance-reversal antimalarial drugs
• Quality, range, cost and sources of antimalarial drugs in the informal sector: implications for treatment of malaria.
• Use of proteomic techniques to identify markers of severe disease in African children and pregnant women.
• Phase III Clinical Trials of antimalarial drugs
  

Current research projects

• Genetic factors that influence disease-susceptibility, drug metabolism, adverse drug reactions, and immunological response in African patients with malaria, TB and HIV and AIDS
• Alternative practical routes of administering drugs to severely ill children
• Health Systems Research: Understanding what factors influence access to health care in rural Africa
• Application of pharmacokinetics in dose optimization in paediatric therapy
• Interactions between common traditional remedies and antimalarial, anti-TB and anti retroviral drugs.
• Application of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight (MALDI-TOF) in proteomic analysis of biological material from children with severe malaria

Selected recent publications

• Muchohi S, Obiero K, Newton C, Ogutu B, Edwards G, Kokwaro G. Pharmacokinetics and Clinical effects of lorazepam in children with severe malaria and convulsions. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology ( 2007) Advanced electronic publication
  
  
• Claire Seaton, James Ignas, Simon Muchohi, Gilbert Kokwaro, Kathryn Maitland and Alison Thomson, “Population pharmacokinetics of a single daily dose of gentamicin in children with severe malnutrition”. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (2007); 59: 681-9
  
  
• Abdinasir Amin, Tom Walley, Gilbert Kokwaro, Peter Winstanley and Robert Snow. Commentary: Reconciling national treatment policies and drug regulation in Kenya. Health Policy and Planning (2007); 22: 111-2
  
  
• Kokwaro G, Mwai L, Nzila A . Artemether/lumefantrine in the treatment of uncomplicated falciparum malaria . Expert Opinion in Pharmacotherapy (2007); 8: 75-94
  
  
• Sasi P, English M, Berkley J, Lowe B, Shebe M, Mwakesi R, Kokwaro G. Characterisation of metabolic acidosis in Kenyan children admitted to hospital for acute non-surgical conditions. Transactions of the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2006); 100: 401-9