Chalkidou was born in Greece. Initially, she wanted to become a train driver.[1] Instead, Chalkidou became a physician. She originally studied medicine at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.[2] She completed a doctoral degree in molecular biology at Newcastle University. She has said that one of her greatest inspirations was Che Guevara.[1] Whilst completing her doctoral research, Chalkidou completed her clinical rotations in basic surgery. Her research considered novel therapies for prostate cancer.
Chalkidou moved to Imperial College London in 2016.[7] In 2018 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded Chalkidou and IDSI a $14.5 million grant to expand healthcare access in the developing world.[8] IDSI works with governments in the developing world to support their health policy, looking to achieve value-for-money in the medical decision making.[8] With IDSI, Chalkidou led national health reform programmes in Colombia, India and the Middle East.[9] She supported Tanzania in their prioritisation list of essential medicines, which freed up essential resources for more effective treatments.
Chalkidou was Director of Global Health Policy and Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development.[9] Her research focussed on helping governments improve health policy.[10]
From 2019, she was a research lead at the Jameel Institute (J-IDEA) at Imperial.
She was appointed to the Board of Directors at the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) in 2020.[11]
