In October 2005, we look forward to welcoming Chikosa Banda who will commence research for his PhD with the Centre, supported by a Wellcome Trust Studentship. Chikosa will examine the efficacy of intellectual property rights as a policy mechanism to accelerate medical research on neglected diseases. Malawi (Chikosa’s country of origin) will be a case study for the research. He will be jointly supervised by Professor Bently and Dr Liddell.
Chikosa has a background that prepares him well for this research. He worked as an Assistant Lecturer in Law in the University of Malawi: Chancellor College, and was appointed to Malawi National Experts Working Group on Access and Benefit Sharing under the Southern African Development Community Biodiversity Support Programme. With Robert Lewis-Lettington, he wrote “A Survey of Policy and Practice on the Use of Access to Medicines –TRIPS Related Flexibilities in Malawi, DFID Health Systems Resource Centre”.
Chikosa says: “Less than 10 percent of global health research efforts target diseases that are prevalent in the developing world. Ironically, these diseases represent 90 % of the global disease burden. The need to create incentives to direct research at neglected diseases cannot therefore be overemphasised. I intend to examine global and domestic factors that contribute to the inequitable distribution of research resources/benefits between the developed world and poor countries. I will employ legal, economic and political theory to explain the failure of current regulatory mechanisms to stimulate biomedical research catering for health needs unique to the poor. I will also review literature and conduct field research to assess the validity of the assumption that stronger intellectual property rights (for example patent extensions) will stimulate research that is of universal benefit.”
The research funding essential to such a project will be provided by the Wellcome Trust’s scheme for research on the Ethics of Biomedical Research in Developing Countries. This will enable Chikosa to be based in Malawi and the UK, and to visit Switzerland and other countries central to the debates.
We are also pleased to announce that Chikosa has been awarded the status of an Honorary Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar.
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