Not many know that Chairman and founder of Bharat BioTech Dr Krishna Ella’s father was a simple farmer in Thiruttani, a Place at the border of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. He always wanted to take up traditional farming as his profession, but it was his father who pushed him to move outside the country and try another profession.

But he still pursued his love for agriculture by doing his graduation from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru. At a later period during an interview Dr Ella said his plan was to keep farming after studying agriculture, but due to economic pressure, he joined a chemicals and pharmaceuticals company. He later moved out of India to study in the US, but many years later, he returned to set up Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad. 

As per the reports, Dr Ella said his mother asked him to return and pursue whatever he wanted. “So I came back to India with a business plan to create a cheaper hepatitis vaccine as there was a heavy demand for it in India.” Today, Bharat Biotech, the company he founded has got global attention after being granted the emergency use permission to its vaccine, Covaxin. The vaccine gets permission even before the trials were complete, Dr Ella reacted for the accusation said company has an established track record in producing 16 safe and efficacious vaccines. “Don’t accuse us of inexperience. We are a global company...have manufactured 16 vaccines. It is not correct to say we are not transparent with data,” he said.

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