Krishna Ella is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

scientist and entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of

Bharat Biotech Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) is an Indian multinational biotechnology company headquartered in the city of Hyderabad, India engaged in the drug discovery, drug development, manufacture of vaccines, bio-therapeutics, pharmaceuti ...

where he is also a

Managing Director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

. Ella and his company were responsible for developing India's own

COVID-19 vaccine A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID19). Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, an e ...

, Covaxin. Ella worked as a research faculty at the

Medical University of South Carolina The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is a public medical school in South Carolina. It opened in 1824 in Charleston as a small private college aimed at training physicians and has since established hospitals and medical facilities acr ...

in Charleston after earning his

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

. from the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

Early life and education

Krishna Ella was born into a

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

-speaking

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

family in the

Tiruttani Tiruttani is a town in Tiruvallur district, suburb of Chennai within Chennai Metropolitan Area limit in state of Tamil Nadu, India. This town is famous for Tiruttani Murugan Temple which is one of the Arupadaiveedu and is dedicated to (Kartike ...

village, in the Tiruvallur district of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

in 1969. Ella obtained a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

from the

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) is the state agricultural university of Tamil Nadu located in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. History The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University had its genesis from establishment of an agricultural sch ...

and joined for a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. On a Rotary fellowship, he completed his master's degree from University of Hawaii. He attained his PhD from

in the department of plant pathology.

Career

Ella started off his career by joining the

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

and life sciences company

Bayer Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of busi ...

, as part of its agricultural division. However, he left to the United States to pursue his education. He returned to India and set up a small lab in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

. In 1999, the company launched its Hepatitis B vaccine at a price of per dose and supplied around 350-400 million doses to more than 65 countries. In 1996, He suggested to the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh,

N. Chandrababu Naidu Nara Chandrababu Naidu ( born 20 April 1950) is an Indian politician and current leader of opposition of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He was also the leader of the opposition of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly from 2004 to ...

to set up a biotech knowledge park (now called

Genome Valley Genome Valley is an Indian high-technology business district spread across /(3.1 sq mi) in Hyderabad, India. It is located across the suburbs, Turakapally, Shamirpet, Medchal, Uppal, Patancheru, Jeedimetla, Gachibowli and Keesara. The Genome Va ...

). Ella's company is the first to manufacture a preservative-free

vaccine A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifie ...

(Revac-B mcf Hepatitis B Vaccine), and launch India's first cell-cultured Swine Flu vaccine. They also manufacture the world's cheapest

Hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal pa ...

vaccines. Bharat Biotech is the first in the world to find a vaccine for the

Zika virus ''Zika virus'' (ZIKV; pronounced or ) is a member of the virus family ''Flaviviridae''. It is spread by daytime-active ''Aedes'' mosquitoes, such as '' A. aegypti'' and '' A. albopictus''. Its name comes from the Ziika Forest of Uganda, whe ...

. Bharat Biotech has delivered over 4 billion vaccines in 123 countries. The vaccine against Covid developed by Bharat Biotech named as Covaxin was endorsed by Indian government with an active push by the Indian Prime minister,

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

. Covaxin usage was opposed by various opposition parties in India by terming it as ''BJP vaccine'' and Some states such as Chattisgarh, Punjab and Kerala were hesitant to use it. However, the efficacy of Covaxin against the Delta and Omicron variants made it more acceptable afterwards. Later, Krishna Ella along with Adar Poonawalla of

Serum Institute of India Serum Institute of India (SII) is an Indian biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals company, based in Pune. It is the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines. It was founded by Cyrus Poonawalla in 1966 and is a part of Cyrus Poonawalla Group. O ...

lauded the Prime Minister Modi for a never-seen before Government-Industry collaboration and for the vision and dynamic leadership of the Prime Minister.

Awards

* ET Now — Special Recognition for Healthcare Industry Award * JRD Tata awards — Best Entrepreneur of the Year (2012) * Marico Innovation Award * University of Southern California—Asia-Pacific Leadership Award * BioAsia - Genome Valley excellence award (2021) * Padma Bhushan for his contribution in Covaxin in response to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, by the Government of India in 2022. * University of Wisconsin-Madison — Distinguished Alumni Award (2011) * University of Wisconsin-Madison — Honorary

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

degree (2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ella, Krishna 1969 births Living people Telugu people Indian Hindus Indian scientists Medical University of South Carolina faculty 21st-century Indian businesspeople University of Hawaiʻi alumni People from Tiruvallur district Indian chief executives Indian businesspeople in the pharmaceutical industry Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in trade and industry University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni People from Tamil Nadu