Poonawalla’s, India’s own Vaccine Prince | Success Story of Cyrus Poonawalla & Serum Institute
Serum Institute of India Ltd, started in 1966, India’s top biotech company and is listed in the top-five largest makers of vaccines in the world
SII manufactures highly specialized life saving vaccines using cutting edge genetic and cell based technologies, antisera and other medical specialties with more than 1.2 billion doses annually. Recently SII took place in the headlines for making the Covidshield Vaccine.
The Serum Institute of India was founded by Poonawalla in 1966, and he launched the first therapeutic tetanus serum within two years and started producing the anti-tetanus vaccines.Cyrus Poonawalla was born in a family that did horse breeding, through the family Poonawalla Stud Farms. At a young age, Poonawalla realized horse racing had no future inIndia, he needed to explore other venues. He realized that creating a product for the masses than for the elite would be a smarter move.
SII was founded with a capital of $12,000. Cyrus’s idea was to develop vaccines by extracting serum from horses. SII became the world’s largest vaccine maker.The affordable vaccine strategy has struck the right cord of the company as its annual revenues are at ₹59 billion ($840 million). Within seven years, the company’s revenue skyrocketed from ₹9.87 billion in FY08 to ₹48.37 billion in FY15. It supplies vaccines to UNICEF and the Pan American Health Organization. Exports contribute to 85% of the company’s revenues.
His son Adar Poonawalla, India’s Vaccine Prince, An Indian Businessman, Philanthropist, vaccine maker made it to the headlines in Indian media during the covid pandemic.
He joined his father in 2001 after his graduation from the University of Westminster in London .He is the man behind making the serum Institute’s Oral Polio Vaccines the best seller of the company. Now to fight against the Coronavirus pandemic, he is on a mission to vaccinate billions of people across the globe.
Serum Institute of India’s success is not only a telling example of the capabilities of the Indian economy but also showing how India is working for the masses.The Pune-based firm has manufactured Polio vaccine, as well as, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hiv, BCG, r-Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccines.Serum partnered with the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University and produced millions of doses of Covishield vaccines against coronavirus.
