They said it couldn't be done.
Article from NewScientist magazine, which ran a special edition on India: the new knowledge economy, 19th February 2005. Link to full article is listed under References on the right (available online without subscription at time of writing). Snippets included here.
In 1995, Krishna Ella proposed to make hepatitis B vaccine in India for one dollar a shot, and was laughed at by venture capitalists - at the time, SmithKline Beecham was selling the product for 20 times that amount. So Ella and his wife Suchitra sold their houses in America and India, left the US for Hyderabad in India, and put all their money into setting up their own company, begging money from friends and finally securing backing from an Indian bank. Their company, Bharat Biotech, now sells the vaccine in developing countries for 28 cents a shot. It owns the second biggest production facility in the world and has an annual turnover of $7.2 million.
How did the Ellas manage to undercut the competition by so much?
In 1986, SmithKline Beecham launched the first vaccine for hepatitis B to be produced by genetic engineering. Ten years ago, Krishna Ella spotted that the purification method used to extract the vaccine protein was inefficient and costly. Ella came up with a new purification process that reduced the need for costly technologies and toxic chemicals, and boosted efficiency by 80 per cent.
Bharat has since started manufacturing other products, and has funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to carry out malaria vaccine research. Krishna Ellis wants to tackle third-world diseases neglected by the multinationals.
"It feels very satisfying. We are on top of the world because we are doing something that is really required for countries like India."