The Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited supplies about 60 per cent of the vaccines needed for the Centre’s healthcare programme. The company’s Chairman and Managing Director Krishna Ella shared his views on the company’s prospects, plans — “We want to focus on all those diseases that cause diarrhoea, and anti-Cholera vaccine fits well in our portfolio,” he told BusinessLine during his visit here. Excerpts:

What is your motivation to get into scaling up Cholera vaccine?

Cholera is stigmatised as poor people’s disease. If I get diarrhoea, I will not admit that the cause may be cholera. Statistics in India for cholera are totally missing. Since past three to four years, Phase I and Phase II trials of the vaccine Hillchol were completed in Bangladesh. Cholera is endemic to Kolkata also, but nobody wants to admit this. We want to focus on all those diseases that cause diarrhoea, and anti-Cholera vaccine fits well in our portfolio.

How dependent is the government on the vaccines that you produce?

We supply up to 60 per cent of national immunisation needs. This includes the supply for Rotavac — a vaccine that protects children against Rotavirus. The virus also causes diarrhoea in children. However, India has yet not introduced Typhoid Conjugate in it’s universal immunisation vaccine basket. Pakistan is introducing it for children and we will supply to the Pakistan government through UNICEF and GAVI by the end of this year.

There are speculations that Rotovac carries a risk of Intussusception, which can be fatal for children. What does your safety studies say?

Fortunately, our vaccine strain is neonatal and has not caused a single Intussusception so far in the national immunisation programme. We have supplied more than 80 million doses to the Central government. This means you are talking of 30 million children being vaccinated. Gates Foundation and non-profit INCLIN are monitoring hospitals where vaccination was carried out. The monitoring data will come out by end of the year. So scientifically, we have substantial evidence that the vaccine is safe.

The recent controversy about contaminated live polio vaccine, which involved BioMed Private Limited, raises questions about good manufacturing practices. What is your take?

We need to have one strain manufactured in one facility and another strain in another facility. You cannot mix up the two. I don’t want to particularly comment on BioMed but there is a lack of conscience, transparency and ethics in this case. When the government had said Type II strain should be destroyed, it should have been done. If it is not destroyed, you are not following the country’s law. The World Health Organisation had set a deadline for destroying the strain.

Are private companies commanding a bigger share in the vaccine business now?

Public sector companies have to reach a global level of knowledge in manufacturing. Will you buy a product from a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility or a non-GMP facility? If the public sector also comes up with GMP facility and manufactures good quality vaccines, why should one discriminate?

Do tell us about Bharat Biotech’s financial health and growth prospects?

Let me tell you this. We are debt-free and significant growth is on the anvil five years down the line. Currently, we are producing 12 vaccines. There will be steeper growth then as many more vaccines are in the pipeline.

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