Krishna's Vision

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Bharat also grew by developing alliances with larger global pharmaceutical companies -- some of them competitors. A large contract manufacturer, for instance, is negotiating to share a 40,000-square-foot preclinical testing facility on Bharat's main campus.

As Ella's business blossomed, though, he faced a classic Indian problem: how to avoid becoming dependent on local labor unions. His solution was practical -- and radical: "We chose a poor village in three of the poorest states of India and offered training to their best students, with a promise of at least two years' employment." By avoiding hiring all his workers from the labor pool in Hyderabad, where Bharat is based, Ella lessened the influence of local labor unions.

Today, much of the company's skilled labor force is made up of people who sometimes can support an entire village with their salaries (which are still just a fraction of those earned by U.S. or European employees in the industry).

The biggest problem Ella faced, however, was the notoriously corrupt government bureaucracy. Again, Ella's approach was simple and personal. "It was my experience that 90% of the bureaucrats were just in it for the bribes and 10% were really interested in using their position to help the people and the country," Ella says. He did background research on the employees of an agency from which he needed permits or regulatory approvals, then concentrated his paperwork on the most honest clerk in the department. Further, if a bureaucrat was rude or unhelpful, Ella approached them like he would a potential customer, returning several times to explain his situation in polite and persuasive language. "Ninety-five percent of the time we're not asked for 'favors'," Ella says. "It's a matter of return on investment: do you want to be spending your capital on bribes or on building a new plant? That's how we look at it."

Bharat now has multiple vaccines for sale in India and southern Asia. They've also begun to market a recombinant epidermal growth factor for diabetic foot ulcers -- the first of its kind. And plenty of R&D projects are in the works, including the rotavirus vaccine, a malaria vaccine being tested in animals, and an antibiotic formulation with yeast granules that rebuilds beneficial flora in the digestive tract after antibiotic treatment.

Still, Ella hasn't been able to turn all his visions into realities yet. After several attempts, an angel investor network intended to nurture other Indian expatriates who want to return to India failed. "Each [expatriate] wanted to keep one foot in India and one foot in the West," he says. "The only way to make it work is to keep both feet firmly planted in India. I'm living proof.