“Building knowledge is ordinary; Building character is eXtraOrdinary.”- Naveen Lakkur

One needs to build knowledge as a foundation for a strong structure to be showcased. The showcase will be of great stature if ‘character’ becomes a Little Extra to the knowledge and Dr.Krishna Ella is a wonderful showcase of it.

Krishna Ella built his knowledge by graduating from University of Agriculture Science and chose to build a little extra knowledge by completing his Ph.D, from University of Wisconsin-Madison in the field of Plant Pathology. He became Dr. Krishna Ella. A gold medallist at university, His hunger for building knowledge continued. He became a research faculty at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston. As a research scientist in Molecular Biology, Dr. Ella strongly believes that innovative technology in vaccine development is essential to solve public healthcare problems caused by infectious diseases. 

His last name ‘Ella’ in the Telugu language translates to ‘How’ in English. 

He wanted to be a Little Extra and figure out that How. He returned back to India in 1996 to start Bharat Biotech in Hyderabad, the capital of the Telugu speaking state.

Driven by a vision to develop innovative remedies for developing world healthcare challenges, Dr. Krishna Ella, a first generation entrepreneur, established Bharat Biotech International Limited in 1996, a company that has delivered over 4 billion vaccine doses to the poorest and most underserved in over 150 developing countries through UNICEF, GAVI and other distribution channels. With over 115 patents, the company has over 12 vaccines in its portfolio and employs around 1600 people.

Dr. Ella strongly believes that innovative technology in vaccine development is essential to solve public healthcare problems caused by infectious diseases. Most recently Bharat Biotech has been working on the development of three COVID-19 vaccine candidates, two of which are international collaborations with University of Wisconsin-Madison and Thomas Jefferson University. The third is an indigenous vaccine development project in collaboration with ICMR. Covaxin™ is India’s 1st indigenous vaccine developed against COVID-19.

Under Dr. Ella’s leadership, Bharat Biotech has grown to become a global leader in innovative vaccines. A serial entrepreneur with a passion for innovative ideas, Dr. Ella has also ventured into veterinary vaccines, food processing, and developing biotechnology infrastructure in the country. 

Dr. Ella is also focused on helping Indian farmers – an area that influenced his life and is closest to his heart. Through Biovet, Innova Food Park, Ella Foods and Mallur Farms, he is enabling Indian farmers to gain access to previously inaccessible market places through value added products, adoption of advances in agricultural methods, improved post-harvest management practices, and not just on production.

He is also a recipient of more than 100 National and International awards. Dr. Ella’s dream is to develop a sustainable ecosystem of healthy people, healthy produce and healthy livestock.