Adar Poonawalla puts $250 million on COVID vaccine 'gamble', reveals what his father said

The CEO of Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawalla recently spoke about the gamble his company is making amid the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic. The Indian billionaire, whose family-owned firm makes more vaccines a year than any other company across the globe, has put around $250 million of his family’s fortune in a bid to ramp up manufacturing capacity to one billion doses through 2021. 

According to The Washington Post, Poonawalla said that he “decided to go all out”. He said that his father, who was among the initial sceptics, also told him that it is his money and if he wants to blow it up, he is fine with it. 

The 39-year-old has made a bet with global repercussions. Amid the quest for an effective vaccine, India is poised to play a critical role in supplying the developing world, which is starting the race with a distinct disadvantage. Countries, including the UK, Japan and Canada, have already struck deals large enough to vaccinate the entire populations. By contrast, a pooled global effort to distribute vaccines equitably to more than 150 countries has secured only 700 million doses.

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Serum Institute’s role in vaccine production  

The Indian vaccine makers, which is led by the Serum Institute, now plays a very important role. The Pune-based institute is the largest manufacturer in the world by volume. Earlier this year, US top health expert Anthony Fauci had also said that Indian’s manufacturing capability is “going to be very, very important” as effective vaccines emerge. 

Major pharmaceutical companies - AstraZeneca, Novavax, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi - have already reached an agreement to produce at least three billion vaccine doses for low and middle-income countries and Serum Institute is set to manufacture more than two-thirds of those doses. Additionally, the WHO backed initiative, known as the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or Covax, is being led by Gavi and in September the non-profit vaccine alliance announced a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to pay Serum Institute in advance for 200 million vaccine doses, at a cost of $3 each, to be distributed in developing countries, hopefully in early 2021. 

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The $600 million infusions will help the Pune-based institute ramp up production. Poonawalla said that Gavi and the Gates Foundation “want to assure vaccine supply at an affordable price”. However, the 39-year-old aims to cover some of his costs. “At least my risk is taken away so I can sleep at night,” he said. 

The partnership with Serum is crucial to Gavi’s larger goal of ensuring that no country is left behind in the quest for vaccines. Under the agreement, over 60 countries would receive the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca or the vaccine under development by Novavax. Moreover, the Serum Institute has struck deals to manufacture both vaccines, which are already in Phase 3 trials. It has also signed deals to make two other vaccines, developed by the American biotechnology company Codagenix and Britain's SpyBiotech, and is working on its own vaccine candidate that it hopes will enter trials late next year.

The Serum Institute has diverted capacity from existing vaccines and started work on a new production facility to be completed next year at its headquarters in Pune. The CEO of the company said that his firm has pledged to keep half of the vaccines it makes for use within India. He is also optimistic that in 2021, a new coronavirus vaccine will be licensed for public use every couple of months. "That's the good news," Poonawalla said. 

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