How Adar Poonawalla took a Pune vaccine maker to more than 140 countries
When Adar Poonawalla joined his father's Serum Institute of India in 2001, it sold to 35 countries. Within about fourteen years that figure passed 140, with most of the money coming from abroad, and the Pune firm had become a supplier to United Nations agencies worldwide.
Poonawalla was born in January 1981 into a Parsi family in Pune, the son of Cyrus Poonawalla, who founded the Serum Institute. He studied at The Bishop's School in Pune, then crossed to England for St Edmund's School in Canterbury and the University of Westminster, and went straight into the family firm after graduating.
His early focus was overseas growth. He pushed for new product licences and for World Health Organization prequalification, the approval needed before bodies such as UNICEF and the Pan American Health Organization will buy. By 2015, 85 percent of revenue came from outside India. He took over as chief executive in 2011, helped buy the Dutch government vaccine maker Bilthoven Biologicals in 2012, and joined the board of the GAVI vaccine alliance.
In 2014 he launched an oral polio vaccine that turned into a bestseller, while plans were reported to add dengue, flu and cervical cancer vaccines. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company pledged 66 million dollars to the University of Oxford for a vaccine research building carrying the family name. In 2021 he said threats over vaccine supplies had driven him to London, and the Indian government gave him Y category security.
His interests have since spread beyond medicine. A 66 percent stake made him chairman of Poonawalla Fincorp, a lender, in May 2021, and in 2024 he paid 1,000 crore rupees for half of Dharma Productions, the film studio. Time put him on its list of the 100 most influential people in 2021, and his 2023 purchase of a London home was reported as the most expensive property in the city.
Source: Adar Poonawalla
