The Ella Foundation, the founder of Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, has signed an agreement with the University of Wisconsin’s Madison Global Health Institute to establish One Health Center in Bangalore to develop and manufacture new vaccines for the country. The partnership will enable collaboration across disciplines and geographic boundaries, give Indian researchers access to the expertise and training of the University of Wisconsin, and build research capacity in India. Krishna, founder, and CEO of Bharat Biotech His Ella, in an interview with Rhythma Kaul, explained the need for such partnerships, his demand for his anti-Covid nasal vaccine, and deaths from Indian-made drugs are damaging the country’s reputation. pharmacy world. Redacted excerpt:
What is the purpose of the agreement between the
Ella Foundation and the University of Wisconsin?
Ella Foundation is a non-profit foundation established nearly 17 years before him for teaching and research purposes.
We have funded many Ph.D. students for Ph.D. programs. We have produced many research papers on both human and veterinary studies. There are also many exchange programs. But now, knowing that the problems of Africa and China can extend to India, people, plants, cows, etc., we want to expand this.
We’re partnering with the University of Wisconsin’s Global Health Institute in Madison to focus on what’s hot in the world these days.
How does it work?
I want it to happen at the bottom of the pyramid. This requires addressing both veterinary and human aspects, as well as other environmental aspects such as marine, fish, and agriculture. We are basically trying to understand what strategy is and what science everyone should have to avoid the associated problems. future.
The University of Wisconsin is one of the best in veterinary medicine, agriculture, and human studies, and probably has the most virologists on campus. To know how to accurately anticipate and prevent some of these problems, we need to start thinking about strategy.
Bharat Biotech’s second his Covid vaccine, an intranasal vaccine, has recently been
launched. How was the reaction?
We sent him 3 million doses of the novel coronavirus nasal vaccine to the hospital two days ago.
I can’t disclose the number of hospitals, but let’s see the reaction. Many countries are not vaccinated at this time, but we will help whenever there is an approach. Some countries, which cannot be named, are indeed approaching nasal vaccines, with international bodies taking a critical view of the product. This is a new platform and we’ll have to see what the initial reaction is. If India gets the vaccine, other countries will too.
What other vaccines are you working on?
We are also working on other vaccines, including vaccines against Chikungunya, Zika, influenza, and variant-specific vaccines against Covid. let’s see. We have all strategies and production capabilities. We are not inferior to any country in the world. we are fully prepared.
When an emergency strikes, we know how to prepare quickly.
How did the WHO Emergency Use License (EUL) for Covaxin go?
The WHO EUL is an ongoing process. Even Seth Berkley (CEO of Vaccine Alliance Gavi) was here two days ago (at the Hyderabad facility), so we’re working on it. We are a leading global supplier of rotavirus vaccines, a leading supplier of typhoid conjugate vaccines, and a leading supplier of polio vaccines.
Do you think India’s reputation as the world’s pharmacy is being tarnished by the spate of deaths from Indian medicines in some countries? We tend to blame the country as a whole, but this is not true. In the age of the Internet, this could damage our country’s reputation. We have some very good companies but we are facing problems because of some local distributors. It is not India that is the problem.
Even some of the (pharmaceutical) companies in the western world would have been punished and had quality and other issues. We are not just an Indian pharmacy, we are a pharmacy supporting global health. There are about 40,000 pharmaceutical companies. So one or two bad cases should not be considered bad.
What is the solution to the problem?
At a recent event, I said the solution to this problem would be to consolidate all state FDAs into a central FDA. Because when you put it all together you get one standard and one quality. I believe that merging the state drug regulatory agencies with the Central Drug Standards Authority will solve most of this problem. Having said that, I have to admit that it’s not a popular opinion.
