Shot stories: Meet Bharat Biotech's Krishna Ella, the man behind Covaxin

As the pandemic raged, India developed its own vaccine. Those weren't easy days, Ella, the man behind Covaxin, tells Sohini Das

Amidst the fury of the pandemic, Krishna Ella was a man consumed by work. He had quite a task at hand — to develop India’s first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin. Our meeting, long anticipated but delayed due to his intense involvement, finally materialises now that the shadow of Covid-19 is receding. 
 

The executive chairperson of Bharat Biotech graciously hosts me in his hometown, Hyderabad, choosing the serene ambiance of Yi Jing at ITC Kohenur, an establishment nestled in the heart of the bustling Hitec City, overlooking the tranquil Durgam Lake.

Yi Jing’s vibrant red decor provides the backdrop as we settle in a quiet corner, a spot Ella particularly enjoys for its panoramic city view. “I come here often,” he shares, introducing me to his favoured fish dishes.

Reflecting on the whirlwind of the past few years, Ella acknowledges the weariness that has crept in after the relentless efforts. “I feel a bit tired now,” he says. There were days, he adds, when he and his wife, Suchitra, worked gruelling 24-hour shifts, staying at the office until the early hours since most video calls with the government happened then.

As he recounts the early days of the pandemic, he gets pensive. Until the vaccine was developed, he says, he was terribly worried for his employees. “Covid isn’t novel — it has existed among animals. Yet, when it hit, despite our attempts to collaborate and acquire technology, there was reluctance to share it,” he says. “That’s when we resolved to develop our own product.” By February 2020, even before the country went into a lockdown. he had submitted a request to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. NIV was playing a pivotal role in the fight against the pandemic.

Ella and I have both ordered chicken dumpling soup and as we dig into it, he says the reason he chose to partner with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was because he wanted to have animal challenge trials at NIV – that is, first vaccinate the animals and then try to infect them with the pathogen to study the safety and efficacy of the potential vaccine. 

“We were working with live viruses those days in a fermenter, and no vaccine was available,” he says. “Had any of my employees died on the job, it would have felt like killing a person.” The NIV partnership went well, after which his company, a vaccine and bio-therapeutics manufacturer, took over. “Our employees were working with 1,000 litres of live viruses,” he says. “Thankfully, none succumbed to Covid-19.”
 

The conversation pauses momentarily as appetisers arrive. I pick up some Cantonese-style lotus stems. Ella nudges me towards the fish, a Hunan-styled preparation, playfully noting my presumed fondness for fish as a Bengali. Known for his love of spices, he livens his steamed dumplings with fiery hot sauce, and dares me to try it.
 

Ella says he has a weakness for Chinese food, while his son and daughter-in-law delight in Japanese cuisine. “They had once gone on this Japanese food trail. 

I am yet to acquire a taste for sushi.”

Sharing anecdotes of simpler times in his village, the biotechnologist reminisces about his mother’s wisdom: “No matter your earnings, a six-inch stomach needs feeding.” His return to India from the US was driven by the vision to propel the country forward in biotechnology. “That’s why the company is called Bharat Biotech,” he says.
 

Visits to his village have dwindled in recent years; work now occupies his days. 
 

Bharat Biotech’s ambitious roadmap encompasses a cholera vaccine awaiting licensure, a TB vaccine in phase 3 trials in South Africa, manufacturing GSK’s malaria vaccine, Mosquirix, in India for global distribution, collaborations for a pan-coronavirus vaccine, and projects addressing chikungunya and zika viruses. Meanwhile, his daughter, Jalachari Ella, a dermatologist, spearheads the therapeutics division, focusing on wound-care and burn treatment.
 

Ella’s enthusiasm extends to the veterinary vaccine space, foreseeing potential pandemics originating in the animal kingdom. “We are into veterinary vaccines as animals are very important to farmers – dairy, poultry etc. We might soon become one of the largest veterinary vaccine producers globally,” he says. 
 

The company is looking at Africa “because the Chinese are coming very aggressively into it. Indian veterinary vaccine companies have not reached Africa yet,” he says. Promoted by Ella, the Bengaluru-based Biovet is into veterinary vaccines.

Our main course, Cantonese noodles paired with prawns in a hot sauce, arrives as Ella, a modest eater, encourages me to try the poultry, while conscientiously monitoring his salt intake and ensuring a portion of greens on his plate.
 

The conversation pivots to Covaxin now being recognised globally as one of the safest Covid-19 vaccines, with hardly any major adverse incident. 
 

“My first agenda is always safety,” he says, explaining, “Antibiotics or cancer drugs, for instance, are given to infected people. But vaccines are given to healthy people, mostly children. So, for a vaccine, safety is the most important aspect.” Next comes efficacy. “During the pandemic, everyone was talking about efficacy; and now that the pandemic is over, everyone is talking about safety,” he says.
 

He remembers an encounter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the pandemic. “He asked logical questions and introduced me to the then health secretary, saying that both of us would have to work closely for several days,” he says. “The one thing he asked me was whether our vaccine would be safe.”
 

He elaborates on Covaxin’s safety profile, underlining its use of an 85-year-old technology, similar to injectable polio or inactivated rabies vaccines. “This vaccine stays in the muscle, but does not go inside the body. That’s a critical aspect that makes this a safe vaccine,” he says.
 

When Bharat Biotech started its journey in the 1990s, Genome Valley, one of India’s first organised clusters for life sciences R&D, did not exist. “We were the first ones to locate that land (near Hyderabad). It was like a chicken-and-egg situation. We were the egg,” Ella says.
 

He adds that they spoke with Chandrababu Naidu, then the chief minister, and the industries minister about the need for a biotech cluster. “We are the founders of Genome Valley,” Ella says, proudly.

The first plant came up with an investment of  ~12.5 crore. Now the company has four plants across India – Hyderabad (Telangana), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Pune (Maharashtra) and Ankleshwar (Gujarat). Another one is coming up near Bhubaneswar (Odisha). It will also serve as a centre for contract manufacturing of vaccines globally.
 

“We need to have various vaccines,” Ella says. So far, Bharat Biotech has 16 vaccines in its portfolio.
 

As the meal draws to a close, Ella indulges in a jasmine tea tart, suggesting we end on a note of Chinese tea — a fitting conclusion to a conversation as diverse and rich as the flavours of our lunch.