Since 2012, Adar Poonawalla has led the Serum Institute of India, the company founded by his father in 1966 and which has grown into the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. The company produces approximately 1.5 billion doses a year, the majority of which go to vaccinate children in low- and middle-income countries through programs run by organizations such as UNICEF and GAVI, The Vaccine Alliance.
The company is known for its low-cost, massive-scale production, and few global health experts were surprised earlier this year when the Serum Institute emerged as a key player in the COVID-19 vaccine race, signing up to manufacture. some of the best candidates, while developing some of your own candidates internally. The company’s strong track record in this vital field earned it a spot on 2020 Change The World list.
If we go back to March or April, when the [World Health Organization] announced to the world that this is something that will spread and reach all countries and that it is a pandemic, that was a wake-up call. I called a meeting with my scientists. Ultimately, a vaccine will be the solution to the pandemic, and as one of the world’s largest manufacturers, I felt as CEO that it was almost our responsibility to take action and do something and play an important role in trying to protect the disease. . humanity of this terrible disease. That’s when it started. I agreed with two strategies: One was to develop our own vaccine platforms, which will take us about another year and a half to complete Phase III trials.
Then I heard about Oxford [University] and Novavax, and all these big institutions and companies that already had a vaccine in the clinic. I knew these guys from past associations, so I decided to partner with them. If a vaccine is ready, the next big challenge is making it. And the third challenge is to distribute it to every corner of every part of the world. For the second manufacturing challenge, I didn’t hear from many other companies that sacrificed their lucrative products and made a COVID vaccine in December. When I didn’t hear that, I almost felt it was my responsibility to take that step and invest hundreds of millions of dollars (now the figure is around $ 450 million) in capacity development and the purchase of all the raw materials to prepare and prepare. . . . We are already entering production at risk, betting that these vaccines will be successful in December. That is where we are now. And that is why the world has been very interested in what I have been doing here in India.
They are all very friendly, helpful, and collaborative. We have partnerships with a couple of big pharmaceutical companies like AstraZeneca. I don’t know what they are thinking, but from my point of view, we were always very discreet. I don’t think anyone in the United States has heard of us, because we are a publicly traded company, not a publicly traded company. When all this international talk about us came up, I was shocked and encouraged – I’m really in the spot now and I need to act. People count on me to be successful and expect me to be successful. Those good wishes and positive encouragement, and a kind of almost terrifying sense of responsibility that I feel I carry on my shoulders, that drives me to do things faster every day. And every day I think: Am I missing something? Can I do something better or faster? Because we race against the clock. At first it was very stressful to be in that position because I was not used to it, frankly, and now I am very used to it. In fact, it has helped and motivated me.
Those are live attenuated vaccines. That means that it is the virus that has been attenuated, which means that the harmful properties have been removed, but it is the whole virus. Live attenuated vaccines for measles and others have traditionally always been the most powerful and effective vaccines, also in their ability to protect you in the long term, which is a very important factor. You don’t want to get vaccinated and then find out in two years that you are vulnerable to COVID, do you? It’s like an annual flu shot, and it’s expensive and impractical. That is why for my candidates I want to take my time, take two years even to do the vaccine. I want to make a vaccine that is so powerful that it is like the measles vaccine, that gives you long-term immunity and a very powerful level of protection, you know, 90% to 95%. So I take my time and I’m in no rush. But because the world needs something fast, and everyone was pushing it, I made the decision to partner, early on, with these other guys who were ahead.
