The Monumental Contribution of Serum Institute During Tough Times of COVID-19

The Monumental Contribution of Serum Institute During Tough Times of COVID-19
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Since the time, the Pune-based Serum Institute of India has announced that it has been working on to prepare up to 40 million COVID-19 vaccine shots, everyone is waiting for the vaccine to hit the market as a hope that will bring end to the pandemic, which has taken toll over the whole world.

"We are looking to build up to 40 million doses by September-October. If successful, we will make the products available in as many countries as possible including India," as told by Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India.

The Institute has also collaborated with Codagenix, an American biotech company for the development of a ‘live attenuated’ vaccine. It is created by reducing the virulence or removing the harmful properties of a pathogen but keeping it alive.

A new piece of information has came in denoting the pricing of these vaccines. “We are planning to make the vaccine available at an affordable price of Rs 1,000 in India, which will take into account costs," said Adar Poonawalla.

Let us see how this institute has been meticulously manufacturing vaccines!

According to Serum Institute, 65 per cent of the children in the world receive at least one vaccine produced by it. The significance of this data point gets magnified when one considers that the vaccines it sells are at a far lower price than its competitors such as GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis and LG Life Sciences. All their vaccines are at half the price sold by big players.

Their philosophy has been that ‘prevention is better than cure at affordable prices’. Poor countries cannot afford the vaccines but they have the right to health.

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India

“The major breakthrough came in the mid-1980s when we got pre-qualified or accredited for supplying vaccines to the UN agencies. Thereafter, there was a meteoric rise for the company,” Poonawalla said. “Today, we protect more children than any other big pharma (company) in the world.”

Talking about his father Cyrus Poonawalla, Adar had once mentioned in conversation with media that his father has passed on the real motive for ‘to do greater good’ to him through his company.

“…when my father started in the ‘60s, even he had not imagined that we’d one day become the largest vaccine producer in the world. He wanted to address the issues of shortages as far as the masses were concerned, and he wanted to get into the line of business that addressed affordable vaccines and affordable healthcare, which wasn't available at that time,” Adar said.

Apart from the vaccine manufacturing, The Poonawalla Foundation is also building toilets in Mumbai and Pune, as well as setting up water treatment plants to supply clean drinking water. “I plan to give 10 million litres of water per day and this will benefit 12 million households,” Adar says.

“I like to live by the philosophy: Live well and help others live well.” We conquer!