64 Time January 31/February 7, 2022
U.S. President Joe Biden committed in Septem-
ber to buy 500 million doses on behalf of other
countries. But actual deliveries still lag far behind.
That gives Poona walla another chance to make
good on his bets. “The gap has only widened and
become more entrenched,” says Andrea Taylor of
the Duke Global Health Institute. “And so Serum
is still a pivotal part of the world’s story in the
months to come.”
For Poonawalla, the mission is twofold. In 2020,
he sought to make history by manufacturing the
vaccines that could protect large parts of the world
and potentially hasten the end of the pandemic. He
still thinks that’s possible. But he’s also working to
restore the reputation and reach of his company.
After the COVID-19 vaccine debacle, “we were so
severely criticized, and everyone thought it was all
over,” Poona walla told TIME in Octo-
ber. “We need this comeback to regain
the lost confidence and market share.”
Before the pandemic, SII was lit-
tle known, even in India, though it
was praised for its steady work mak-
ing cheap vaccines to fight child-
hood diseases. Its meningococcal and
meningitis shot sells for less than $1,
compared with more than $100 for a
meningococcal vaccine in the U.S.
When Poonawalla took over as
CEO of SII from his father in 2011,
he had big shoes to fill. Cyrus Poon-
awalla had been nicknamed the Vac-
cine King of India for his work sup-
plying vaccines to poor communities.
Adar had a reputation for an extrava-
gant lifestyle, but in the background he was ex-
panding his company’s reach. Two decades ago,
the Serum Institute supplied vaccines to 35 coun-
tries. Today it has deals with 140.
His business model was to buck the trend in
the global pharmaceutical industry, which had
stopped producing routine vaccines for many in-
fectious diseases that had been quelled in the West.
Producing such vaccines was still necessary, but
not particularly lucrative. The low-cost, high-vol-
ume business model—combined with SII’s long-
standing partnership with GAVI, the Vaccine Al-
liance—made the company vital to childhood
immunization campaigns around the world, espe-
cially in poorer countries. By early 2020, SII was
producing 1.5 billion doses per year, boasting that
65% of the world’s children had received at least
one of its vaccines.
So when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Poona-
walla knew his company had a central role to play.
While we all waited to find out which vaccines,
if any, would be effective, Poonawalla placed his
two big bets, pushing his company into the globalspotlight. One worked. The other didn’t—and the
world is still paying for it.
The first gamble, in March 2020, was to le-
verage his relationships to strike a deal to man-
ufacture the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for
low- and middle- income countries. His family
sank $250 million into the venture. The Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation invested an additional
$300 million. By selling advance orders to coun-
tries including Bangladesh and Morocco, SII se-
cured $250 million more. By the time the vaccine
was authorized for use by the U.K. in late Decem-
ber 2020 and by India in early January 2021, SII
had some 50 million doses in cold storage. In Feb-
ruary 2021, Ghana received the first COVAX ship-
ment of 600,000 doses of vaccines produced by
SII, followed by other countries including Liberia
and Ivory Coast. Vaccines produced
by SII also became integral to India’s
immunization campaign, which kick-
started in mid-January.Poonawalla’s second bet was
that he could rapidly scale up pro-
duction to more than 100 million
doses a month and ship most of them
overseas. But almost straight out of
the gate, SII stumbled. First, there
was the fire: on Jan. 21, 2021, a blaze
broke out during construction at one
of the company’s plants in Pune. Of-
ficials said the fire, which killed five
workers, was caused by an electrical
short circuit. SII initially claimed this
wouldn’t affect COVID-19 vaccine
production, but afterward, it struggled to pro-
duce more than 60 million doses a month. Poona-
walla later admitted the fire set back production
two to three months.
Meanwhile, triggered by U.S. export restrictions
earlier in 2021, SII had trouble procuring raw mate-
rials like vials, syringes and bioreactor bags, which
further slowed production. Then cases started ris-
ing sharply in India, leading to a devastating second
wave in April and May. Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s government had been vague to that point
about how many vaccine doses it would purchase
from SII, and had not given any financial assistance
to the company to help it scale up production. But
when Indian states began to pressure the Modi gov-
ernment about vaccine supplies, it responded by
banning the export of vaccines beginning in April.
Poonawalla’s fall from grace was swift, in India
and abroad. Vaccination drives in many countries
were stalled, owing to their inability to get doses
they’d expected from SII. AstraZeneca warned the
company of possible legal action over the delays.
In April, with COVID-19 deaths soaring in India,WORLD
‘The hype
clearly didn’t
match the
reality on the
ground. They
thought that
they could be
the savior of
the world.’
NEETA SANGHI, SUPPLY-
CHAIN CONSULTANT