Lost 10 years of my life in 18 months, says Dr Krishna Ella

HYDERABAD: The Covid-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill. But Bharat Biotech chairman and managing director Dr Krishna Ella was living life in an accelerated mode. He believes he lost 10 years of his life in the past 18 months thanks to the stress that went hand-in-hand with the excitement of developing Covaxin.

In a rare face-to-face interview, Ella opened up to TOI about the thrill of developing India’s first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, but also spoke about the dangers and controversies that dogged the company throughout. “The past 18 months were tough times. I have not battled so much for anything in the last 25 years (since he set up Bharat Biotech),” he says. “I feel as if I have lost 10 peaceful years in this battle.”

With a childlike grin, he says although Covaxin is not the first vaccine to have been developed by his company, it was certainly the first time that BB was under constant spotlight. For Covaxin, "we were working with a 1,000-litre fermenter with such a high density of live virus that this was enough to infect entire India. It was dangerous."

Pointing out that any death due to infection in the company, that too when there was no vaccine, would have been disastrous, he explains: “Today, we are vaccinated but then there was no vaccine. So, for about 4-5 months, some 20-25 of our critical employees could not go to their families. We took some apartments about 1 km away from our plant (Genome Valley, Hyderabad) and put them up there till we had the animal challenge studies that indicated the vaccine offers 100% protection.”

So how does he deal with the intense scrutiny? Ella says he switches off once he reaches home and does not pick up any calls. Instead he spends his time doing what he loves the most – reading up on the latest advancements in the world of science. “I think the best way to deal with it is to mind your business and keep moving on,” he says.