Adar Poonawalla: the vaccine prince who will save the world
Adar Poonawalla, the chief of the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer by volume, has an ambitious plan to rescue us all from Covid-19. The future for his dynasty looks bright, says Jane Lewis.

If the world manages to escape the clutches of Covid-19 this year, it may be largely down to the efforts of Adar Poonawalla – the Indian tycoon known as “the vaccine prince”, says The Times. Poonawalla’s company, Serum Institute of India (SII), is “comfortably the biggest vaccine manufacturer by volume in the world”: some two-thirds of all the children on the planet have been vaccinated with one or more of its products. The company makes 1.5 billion doses of vaccines annually against diseases such as polio, diphtheria and hepatitis B.
Now Poonawalla, 39, “has an ambitious plan” to supply the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to half the planet by this time next year. And he plans to do so at $3 a dose, “which barely covers costs”. When the pandemic set in, he says, “I decided to go all out” – immediately embarking on a dramatic expansion of manufacturing facilities funded by £270m of his company’s money and another £3m from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The family has cash to spare. According to Forbes, his father, Cyrus Poonawalla, who founded the company in 1966, is worth $11.5bn, making him India’s sixth richest man last year.
Indeed, Poonawalla senior (“the vaccine king”) has almost doubled his wealth during the pandemic, says Business Today (India), thanks to partnerships with global pharmaceutical majors. Poonawalla junior is clear that his primary motivation is not to make money, but to save lives. Whatever the case, he has been lauded across Asia as one of the world’s chief “virus busters”, says The Economic Times of India.
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
A life of glamour
The Poonawallas – so called because of their base in the city of Pune (known as Poona during the British Raj) – are “a fixture of India’s business aristocracy”, noted the FT in 2014. The family is famous for its stable of racehorses, its stud farm, and one of the country’s most expensive sports-car collections. In 2015 the clan bought a sprawling seaside mansion in Mumbai for $113m in “the most expensive residential property deal in India’s history”. Adar Poonawalla was educated in Britain and enjoys an old-fashioned life of glamour – owning paintings by Picasso, Dali, Rembrandt and Rubens, spending holidays on the French Riviera, attending grand prix and calling the Prince of Wales “a close and very dear friend”. His private office, notes The Times, is “a disused Airbus A320”, which he has lavishly refurbished, complete with boardroom and bedroom.
The family’s journey into vaccines happened almost by chance, says Business Insider. Although hailing from a family of wealthy landowners, Cyrus Poonawalla inherited just 40 acres and knew he had to go into business. It was “a chance meeting with a veterinarian” who worked at his stud farm that triggered an idea to produce vaccines. The timing was propitious, says The Times. When he set up the Serum Institute in 1966, “lots of new vaccines were coming on stream”, but most were imported and far too pricey for most of the country’s population – so the business took off rapidly. It got another boost when Adar Poonawalla joined in 2001 and started developing an international market – cutting the price of vaccines by producing them in huge quantities and focusing on developing countries that the pharma giants ignored.
The future for the dynasty looks bright. Once “a niche industry”, vaccine manufacturing has found a new status due to Covid-19 and the growing threat of future global pandemics. The modern world, says Poonawalla, is “a melting pot…just waiting to churn out more of these kinds of terrible viruses”. He thinks we were “lucky” with Covid-19. “Can you imagine if ebola were as infectious as coronavirus?”
Get the latest financial news, insights and expert analysis from our award-winning MoneyWeek team, to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.
She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.
Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.
She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.
-
The five insurance policies you should have
Some insurance cover will be more important than others. We look at five insurance policies you may need to have to make sure you aren’t caught out in an emergency
-
Is Donald Trump putting the US dollar in danger?
Donald Trump's administration sees one of its greatest advantages – the US dollar – as a burden. Gold is the obvious beneficiary, says Cris Sholto Heaton.
-
Akio Toyoda takes back control of Toyota
Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda once made a pledge to fulfil his grandfather’s dreams for the family business that became Japan’s first domestic carmaker. He is now making good on that promise.
-
Trump eyes private foundations to raise tax. Will philanthropy decline?
The picture is mixed, but philanthropy on the whole is alive and well, says Simon Wilson
-
Mohammed bin Salman: The new face of Saudi Arabia
Under the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, the kingdom has pursued ambitious reforms to transform itself into a thriving 21st-century economy
-
Can Pope Leo plug a worrying black hole in the Vatican’s finances?
Pope Leo, the new head of the Catholic Church, takes responsibility not just for 1.4 billion souls, but also for a complex multinational business in deep financial trouble.
-
Doug and Mary Perkins: Specsavers’ clear-sighted founders
Helped by the deregulation of the sector in the 1980s and brilliant advertising, Mary Perkins and her husband Doug have taken Specsavers to the top of the optometry market
-
Greg Abel: Warren Buffett’s heir takes the throne
Greg Abel is considered a safe pair of hands as he takes centre stage at Berkshire Hathaway. But he arrives after one of the hardest acts to follow in investment history, Warren Buffett. Can he thrive?
-
Who will be the next Warren Buffett?
Opinion There won’t be another Warren Buffett. Times have changed, and the opportunities are no longer there, says Matthew Lynn.
-
Lorne Michaels: the ringmaster at Saturday Night Live
Lorne Michaels created Saturday Night Live, a cultural phenomenon that launched the careers of countless stars in America.