Summary

Cyrus Poonawalla, born in 1941 in Pune, Maharashtra, is the chairman and managing director of the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's largest vaccine manufacturer globally in terms of doses produced. He founded SII in 1966 and the company has since been a key contributor to international immunisation campaigns, manufacturing low-cost vaccines against diseases like measles, polio and influenza.

Poonawalla was born into the family of horse breeders, as his father owned a sprawling stud farm in Pune. However, he chose to begin his entrepreneurial journey as a developer of a $120 prototype sports car modelled on D-type Jaguar with his school friend. But what later blossomed into a multi-billion dollar business was the idea to manufacture vaccines for the masses. With his vision, the institute diversified its product line to incorporate a comprehensive variety of vaccines, improving global public health.

Personal Information

Major Events Timeline:

• 1966: Poonawalla founded the Serum Institute of India, the largest vaccine-producing company in the world by doses.
• 1970s: He launched SII's first therapeutic anti-tetanus serum within two years of its inception and began producing the anti-tetanus vaccines.
• 1974: SII introduced the DTP vaccine, which protects children from diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, followed by an anti-snake-venom serum for snake bites in 1981.
• 1989: Serum Institute began the production of its Measles Vaccine M-Vac and within a year it became the country’s largest vaccine manufacturer.
• 1994: SII got accredited by the WHO to export vaccines from India and started supplying high quality vaccines to UN Agencies such as UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), PAHO (Pan American Health Organisation).
• 2005: He was awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution in the field of medicine.
• 2021: He collaborated with AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford to develop the Covishield vaccine for the Covid-19 pandemic.
• 2025: He came in at number 6 on Forbes’ The 10 Richest Indian Billionaires 2025 list with a net worth of $23.1bn.

Challenges and Controversies

The Poonawalla Group faced student-led protests in 2024 against a proposal to build a convention centre on the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) campus. This led to the withdrawal of the proposal.