‘If India takes the Covid nasal vaccine, other countries will also use it’:Krishna Ella

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech founder’s Ella Foundation has signed an agreement with US-based University of Wisconsin’s Madison Global Health Institute to establish a One Health Centre in Bangalore, which will develop and produce new vaccines for the country. 

The partnership will enable collaboration across disciplines and geographical boundaries, provide Indian researchers access to University of Wisconsin’s expertise and training, and build research capacity in India. Krishna Ella, founder and executive chairman of Bharat Biotech, spoke in an interview with Rhythma Kaul about the need for such partnerships, demand for its anti-Covid nasal vaccine, and whether deaths due to India-made drugs have dented the country’s reputation as the pharmacy of the world. 

The Ella Foundation is a non-profit foundation set up for education and research purposes nearly 17 years ago. We funded a lot of graduate students to do their PhD programmes. We produced a lot of research papers on both human and veterinary research. And we also have a lot of exchange programmes. But now, we want to expand this as we know that a problem in Africa or China can come to India, to humans, plants, cattle, etc. And, if it comes, how to handle it effectively. We are partnering with the Global Health Institute of the University of Wisconsin at Madison with a focus on one world, one health that people are talking about quite a bit these days.

How will it work?

I want to make it a ground reality at the bottom of pyramid. For that, we need to work both from the veterinary and human sides, and also other environmental aspects such as oceans, fish, agriculture, etc. We are trying to understand at the grassroots level, what is the strategy, what is the science that is needed to prevent all the interrelated problems in future. The University of Wisconsin is one of the best in veterinary, agriculture and human research with probably one of the highest numbers of virologists in one campus. You have to start thinking about strategies to know how to accurately predict some of these problems and prevent them.

We have dispatched three lakh doses of the Covid nasal vaccine to hospitals just two days ago. I cannot disclose the number of hospitals, but let us see what the response is. A lot of countries are not taking the vaccine right now, but if we are approached, we are always there to help. Some countries are, in fact, approaching for the nasal vaccine even though I cannot disclose the names. International agencies are looking at the product critically; it is a new platform and we need to see how the initial response is. If India takes the vaccine, then other countries will also take it.

What other vaccines are you working on?

We are working on other vaccines such as those against chikungunya, zika, flu, and also variant specific vaccines against Covid. Let’s see. We have all the strategies in place and have the capability to produce. We are not inferior to any country in the world; we are well prepared. If any contingency comes, we know how to gear up fast.

How have you progressed with the WHO emergency use license (EUL) issue for Covaxin?

WHO EUL is a continuous process. Even Seth Berkley (CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance) was there (at our plant in Hyderabad) two days back, so we are working on it. We are a major supplier of the rotavirus vaccine globally, a major supplier of the typhoid conjugate vaccine, and also a major supplier of the polio vaccine.

Do you think back-to-back episodes of deaths due to India-make drugs in some countries dented the country’s reputation as pharmacy of the world?

We tend to blame the country as a whole when something goes wrong, like in case of cough syrups recently, which is not right. It can be detrimental to our country’s reputation in the time of internet . We have some very good companies, and because of some local agencies, we are getting into trouble. It is not India that is a problem. Even some of the (pharma) companies in the Western world would have gotten penalized and have quality or other issues. We are not just the pharmacy of India, we are pharmacy for helping global health. We have some 40,000 pharma companies. Therefore, one or two bad cases should not be viewed as India being bad.

What is the solution to the issue?

At an event I recently said that the solution to this problem is that all state FDAs (food and drug administrations) should be merged with the central FDA, as when you merge all these, then you get one standard, one quality. I feel merging state drugs regulatory authorities with the central drugs standard control organization will help in solving the majority of this problem. That aside, I must admit, it is not really a popular opinion.