Charles Okechukwu Esimone (born 29 December 1970) is a Nigerian professor of biopharmaceutics and pharmaceutical biotechnology who served as the vice-chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria from 2019 to 2024.

Esimone started his career as internee pharmacist and then became a laboratory instructor, all in the Department of Pharmaceutics, University of Nigeria Nsukka.

[11] Esimone pioneered research in the use of recombinant viral vectors as surrogates for high-throughput antiviral screening studies, as well as on the use of indigenous medicinal plants as immunomodulators, vaccine adjuvants, and anti-infectives.

[15] In addition to this work, his research led to the discovery of new antimicrobial compounds—including antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral agents—derived from endophytes, lichens, ferns, herbs, and spices.

Esimone was instrumental in the isolation and characterization of resistance genes from clinical settings, abattoirs, and poultry, with a particular focus on extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) and metallo-beta-lactamases (MBLs) identified in the southeastern regions of Nigeria.

[16] Moreover, Esimone’s research team was the first to demonstrate the occurrence of the FOX-1 gene, responsible for expressing the AmpC enzyme in gram-negative bacteria in Nigeria.