Though he’s based in Searcy, Landry Kamdem Kamdem has the long-term goal of building an industry-changing hospital in “the heart of Africa.”
Kamdem Kamdem is the founder and president of the Christian Research Hospital Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to build a clinical research facility in Garoua, Cameroon.
Kamdem Kamdem, who is also an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Harding University in Searcy, is a clinical pharmacologist who has spent the past 15 or so years in precision medicine, which works to tailor drugs to individual patients. Through Christian Research Hospital, which is still in the funding and awareness stages, Kamdem Kamdem hopes to impact the way drugs are designed and distributed to those with HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.
“It is [about] how we can make drugs work better for every single individual based on several variables,” he said. “It could be gender. It could be age. It could be body-mass index. It could be anything. So we now live in an era when we think that every individual genetic makeup matters, so we want to tailor every drug to every patient. We want the drugs to be more effective and less toxic and, of course, cheaper.”
Kamdem Kamdem was born in Nancy, France, to parents who are Cameroon natives. After six years in France, he lived in Cameroon for 12 years; Russia for six years, where he studied pharmacology; and Germany for another six years, where he received a doctorate in clinical pharmacology. He has been living in the United States for the past 10 years and has lived in states such as Tennessee and Indiana. He said he was drawn to Searcy because he could express his faith at Harding University.
“I wanted to live and work in an environment where I could also help Jesus. There are not a lot of Christian universities out there that could fit the bill,” he said. “I kind of felt like I could undertake a professorship role and have my own lab and deal with my own philosophy and own ideas. I had to do it in a Christian environment. I have the opportunity to make my mark. I could come here and express my faith, love God, love my brothers and find the right balance between being a professional, being a Christian and helping others as well.”
Last year, Kamdem Kamdem said, God told him to use his talents to help the world’s poorest and sickest; thus Christian Research Hospital began. He said most FDA- and European Medicines Agency-approved drugs for his organization’s targeted diseases are designed based on clinical trials that use a specific population from Europe or America. His research will question whether the drugs based on those trials — trials that he said lead to health disparities — truly work for those in the poorest communities of the world.
“I always had an affinity for the poorest and the sickest, especially those who have HIV, malaria and tuberculosis,” he said. “Why? Because those diseases have been in the world for a long time — like malaria — but in the richest countries of the world and continents, that problem has been completely eradicated. The drugs have been designed, synthesized. They are on the market. They work very well, and people have been cured for that disease. But for some reason, in the poorest countries, or on the poorest continent, they still die from it at an alarming rate. Every five seconds, there’s a child that succumbs from malaria.
“I thought that we could bring a different type of answer,” he continued, “not just by shipping medications, but actually asking ourselves questions: Are those drugs appropriately used in that particular population? Do they work? Are they effective? My job is to find ways to make drugs work better.”
In June, Kamdem Kamdem and the three other members of the board of directors for the research hospital took a mission trip to Cameroon to scout a potential site for the hospital and to further identify the needs of the community. Christian Research Hospital volunteers worked in a rural area and found that out of 5,000 people in the area who are supposed to get free HIV medication, only 10 percent of those patients receive the drugs on a regular basis. Roads, infrastructure, lack of lab tests and economic status contribute to this lack of drug distribution, Kamdem Kamdem said.
“We want the work to be done in mission trips because we think the physical component ought to be linked to the spiritual component,” he said. “By doing this kind of work, we are becoming better human beings for Jesus and for our fellow citizens, brothers and sisters. It’s very important for us not to just say we’re going to ship anything. No, we want people to sacrifice their time and go there and put their hands in the mud and be involved [with] people who have HIV who are living deep in that area who are really desperate.”
While in Cameroon, an HIV-positive man approached Kamdem Kamdem for help. The man said he could get free medications, but his blood work was not paid for, which kept him from accessing the free drugs. The cost for blood work was $10.
“The hospitals, they even insulted him: ‘How did you get the HIV?’ They stigmatize you because you have HIV,” Kamdem Kamdem said. “It broke my heart.”
He said the stigma toward those with HIV shouldn’t exist.
“They’ll be more comfortable telling you that they have cancer, but they’re not going to tell you that they have HIV,” he said. “It stems from the fact that we predominately get infected with HIV via sexual transmission, so people don’t feel comfortable talking about that, especially if they feel like they were not supposed to have intercourse in the first place. People are quick to condemn them.”
Shelbie Stickels, a board member for Christian Research Hospital and one of Kamdem Kamdem’s pharmacy students, said she is involved with the organization because it educates others on living with diseases such as HIV and preventing the contraction of them.
“They don’t have the education,” she said. “They don’t understand how easy it can be to not contract malaria and how easily malaria can be treated. HIV is not a death sentence. We have the drugs now that can help them and protect them. It’s the teach-them-to-fish-or-give-them-the-fish sort of thing.”
More compassion can lead to changes in health, Kamdem Kamdem said.
“One of the primary reasons why the sickest remain the sickest and the poorest remain the poorest is because we don’t care for the sickest; we don’t care for the poorest,” he said. “We try to sometimes rationalize why people are sick and why people are poor, and they have not chosen that life.”
Stickels said Kamdem Kamdem exhibits passion in the work he does.
“He’s a well-oiled machine,” she said. “If he puts his mind to it, no matter what, it’s going to be successful. I’m proud of him and proud to be a part of it.”
Next year, Christian Research Hospital volunteers will return to Cameroon to further study the community’s health needs. There is no specific plan yet for when the facility will be built, but Kamdem Kamdem said he hopes others will become involved in the organization’s efforts.
“Little by little, we want to help people always, and that’s what drives us,” he said.
To learn more, visit www.christianresearchhospital.org.
Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.