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Bharat Biotech - Story of entrepreneurship ignited by a mother that might give us the first COVID19 Vaccine

It's been around four months from the first lockdown in India due to Coronavirus (COVID-19). After all the attempts, everyone is hoping for a vaccine that can end this pandemic. Then "Bharat Biotech International Limited" came up with "COVAXIN" that might put an end to all this. Human trials are going on, as I write this, and we all hope it becomes a success.

But, who is behind all this? His name is Dr. Krishna Ella. He is the Chairman & Managing Director of Bharat Biotech International Limited, which was established in 1996. He firmly believes that innovative technology in vaccine development is essential to solve public healthcare problems caused by infectious diseases. He is an entrepreneur now, and he looks at the issues the Indian society faces and then convert that into a business opportunity.

He is from a village near Thiruthani in Tamil Nadu, and his father was a farmer who inspired him to study agriculture and wanted to be a farmer. Taking the financial needs of his family on his shoulders, he started working with Bayer (a chemicals and pharmaceutical company) in their agricultural division. While working for Bayer, he got the Rotary's Freedom from Hunger Fellowship to study in the United States. He did his master's at the University of Hawaii and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in molecular biology.

Two women in his life made him decide to come back to India. His wife, Suchitra, and his mother. 

His mother told him, "Son, you have a small stomach, no matter how much money you make, you can eat to a limit. Come back to India and do whatever you want; I will make sure that you won't sleep empty stomach." 

He had to come back after that. By giving him freedom of whatever he wanted to do after returning, his mother and wife encouraged him to take risks.

In 1995, He started conceptualizing a Hepatitis vaccine. There was a massive demand for this medicine in India. He set up a small lab in Hyderabad with the medical equipment he had brought along with him from the USA and started producing the protein.

He didn't get the funding, as, at that very time, another biotech company had submitted a Rs 40-crore (Rs 400 million) proposal, and he submitted a proposal for Rs 12.5 crore (Rs 125 million). So they felt Mr. Ella, as a scientist, didn't know what he was doing.

His proposed vaccine price was $1 when the market rate was $35 to $40. He was looked at with doubt as to the proposed cost of the project, and the vaccine was so much less!

So he went to another capital raising company and started Bharat Biotech with a total cost of Rs 12.5 crore. Some of the balance capital was funded by way of loan from the Technology Development Board (Department of Science and Technology) and IDBI Bank. They recovered the entire investment of Rs 12.5 crore in two years. Instead of declaring a dividend, they invested the money in R&D, and capital outlays, which Mr. Ella believes is one of the most important aspects of any company, which is generally less looked upon in India.

In those two years, Mr. Ella went on to show the world that a scientist can also become a successful businessman, and we as Indians also have creativity, innovative minds who can take risks and contribute to building a healthy world.

In 1996, he suggested to Chandrababu Naidu, the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, on the need to have a biotech knowledge park. He requested land from APIIC (Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation), where they would set up only research and development industries and not the polluting ones. The government approved the idea, and Bharat Biotech's Hepatitis vaccine plant was the first one to come up there, followed by the ICICI Knowledge Park, followed by many other industries. Finally, it culminated as Genome Valley. Genome Valley has become very significant as far as biotech parks are concerned in India. It spiked the very idea of such parks throughout India.

Mr. Ella feels that technology should reach the common man, and no citizen should be deprived of healthcare solutions. Vaccines must become affordable to the common man. Whenever Bharat Biotech sells at a low price, multinationals and politicians try to kill it by saying it might be of low quality.

He says that "If someone sells a vaccine at Rs 100, it is excellent! And if they sell the same at Re 1, it is described as a bad one.

Today, Bharat Biotech has over 160 patents. As a leading biotechnology company, they seamlessly straddle the worlds of product research and manufacturing to create effective vaccines and therapeutics for patients around the world.

Dr. Ella has also ventured into veterinary vaccines, food processing, and developing biotechnology infrastructure in the country. Dr. Ella is also involved in shaping India's science education and policy through his association with several committees such as:

  • Scientific Advisory Committee to the Union Cabinet
  • CSIR Governing Council
  • CCMB Governing Council.
  • Research Council for CSIR National Laboratories.
  • Board of Visitors – Global Health Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Several awards have been conferred on Dr. Ella:

  • ET Now Special Recognition for Healthcare Industry Award
  •  J R D Tata—Best Entrepreneur of the Year Award
  • Marico Innovation Award and the University of Southern California—Asia-Pacific Leadership Award.

This is why we need to return to India. Many of my friends are studying in different countries and I respect that. But who will take care of India?

Just imagine, if Mr. Ella's mother and wife had not made him come back to India, we would have never seen such a fantastic company with such a great product in the pharma industry for the entire world.

So, do come back when the time is right and contribute back to the country. I know everything is not right here. But, you might be one making it right. 

Who knows, you might become the next Mr. Ella!

References:

https://www.bharatbiotech.com/founder_profile.html

https://www.bharatbiotech.com/history_milestones.html

https://www.rediff.com/business/slide-show/slide-show-1-meet-the-man-behind-indias-genome-valley/20110107.htm#5


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