Meet Adar Poonawalla, the man bringing COVID-19 vaccines to India
In the fight against COVID-19, or should we say the worst health crisis of our time, several institutes/organizations are racing to develop vaccines, anti-viral treatments. The efforts have nurtured a new era of international partnerships, and now, Adar Poonawalla, a drug mogul hailing from India, has decided to secure millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses for his countrymen. Here's how he will go about it.
Chief Executive of Pune-headquartered Serum Institute of India
Adar Poonawalla, as many already know, is the Chief Executive of Serum Institute of India (SII) — the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by the number of doses produced. His father Cyrus Poonawalla, a renowned business magnate, founded the institute on his horse farm 54 years ago and transformed it into an organization providing low-cost drugs and vaccines across the world, particularly to developing nations.
Making vaccines for many preventable diseases
Since joining SII in 2001, Adar has been working toward pushing forward the work started by his father, who remains the chairman of the company at age 79. In its early days, the institute just manufactured the vaccines for tetanus and measles. Today, it supplies 1.5 billion doses of a wide array of vaccines every year, including shots for tuberculosis, polio, meningitis, and other preventable diseases.
The fight against COVID-19
Now, in the face of the ongoing pandemic, Adar is redirecting Serum Institute's manufacturing capabilities to produce safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. For this, the most notable development has been the institute's partnership with UK's AstraZeneca to mass-produce the promising candidate vaccine from Oxford University. SII has got the license to manufacture and supply a billion doses of the shot to low-to-middle income countries.
50% of these vaccines will go to India, says Adar
Under the agreement, SII has committed to providing 400 million doses of the vaccine before the end of 2020. Adar says, if Phase-3 human trials are successful, India will get the vaccine by the first quarter of 2021. More importantly, he has confirmed that half of SII's production would go to India, with a single shot being priced under Rs. 1,000.
"I don't think any individual will have to pay"
"We are planning to put the price at around Rs. 1,000 or less than that," Adar said. "I don't think any individual will have to pay for it because the vaccines will mostly be bought by governments and then distributed free through the immunization programs."
Other vaccine efforts also underway
In addition to AstraZeneca, the Serum Institute is also working with two other vaccine developers to manufacture and supply COVID-19 vaccines around the world, but those efforts are not this massive. Then, it has also deployed in-house teams to develop two home-made shots to prevent COVID-19 infection — one of which is already moving through pre-clinical animal trials.
Adar's role has been critical in SII's growth
Notably, Adar's role has been critical in taking SII to the level where it could handle the vaccine requirements of India and other nations. When he joined, the company exported to 35 countries, but then he focused on the international market and getting new products licensed and pre-qualified by WHO for supplying to UN agencies. Today, SII's vaccines reach as many as 170 nations.
SII entered major markets under Adar's leadership
After working at SII for about a decade, Adar was promoted to the CEO's post, given control of all day-to-day operations of the company. Since then, he has taken several aggressive moves, leading Serum Institute's entry into new markets such as Russia, Argentina, and Nigeria, its acquisition of Bilthoven Biologicals vaccine manufacturing company, restructuring SII, and increasing its revenues at the same time.
Association with GAVI Alliance
Adar is also associated with the GAVI vaccine alliance founded by Bill Gates 20 years ago. About 40% of vaccines funded by GAVI are supplied by SII. In fact, Adar cites Gates as his mentor, for his work to make vaccines more affordable and accessible.
Here's what Cryus Poonawalla says about Adar
"His style is fairly similar to mine," Cyrus Poonawalla told Forbes. "I was able to incorporate certain values and certain principles in him that we as a family-run business use every day. So far this has been very successful. For example, knowing what proposals to pursue and what to drop, being thorough and going into detail, and not just scratching the surface."
Work with Villoo Poonawalla Foundation
Along with providing vaccines at affordable rates, Adar also manages the Villoo Poonawalla Foundation, an organization he founded in the memory of his mother. It focuses to remove inequalities in the areas of healthcare, education, water, sanitation, and environment and runs 6 schools, 1 hospital, 25 water plants as well as 250 trucks and machinery to pick up and process waste.
