65Poona walla flew to London, citing threats to his
safety—inviting further anger. Previously a regular
fixture on Indian TV news, he went silent.
By early May, the Serum Institute had delivered
about 30 million doses to the COVAX facility —less
than 3% of the promised number. But it wasn’t
long before Poona walla got his second chance. By
mid-June, he returned to India and re-established
day-to-day oversight of SII. Thanks in part to a
cash injection of nearly $400 million from the In-
dian government to help boost production capac-
ity, he was able to acquire a 50% stake in SCHOTT
Kaisha, a Mumbai-based company that produces
vials and syringes. He also invested in SII’s pub-
lic image: in December, the company donated
$66 million to establish the Poona walla Vaccines
Research Building at Oxford, focusing on global
pandemic preparedness.
Practical results are finally showing. SII says
it produced 250 million doses of the Oxford-
AstraZeneca vaccine in October, more than any
other single company in the world. That same
month—with the Indian government’s blessing
after 60% of Indians received at least one vaccine
dose—the company resumed some vaccine exports,
sending 1 million shots to neighboring countries.
Despite his mixed success over the past
two years, Poonawalla is already forging ahead
with new ventures. The Serum Institute is now
producing another COVID-19 vaccine, developedby U.S. firm Novavax, which was authorized for
use by the WHO in December. Also in the works:
an intra nasal vaccine and a one-dose version of the
Russian Sputnik V shot.
All this as Poonawalla works through a new,
unexpected challenge. In December he revealed
that the company now has too many doses. In-
dia’s demand for vaccines has slowed, while new
orders from COVAX and other countries have yet
to pick up. Poona walla announced on Dec. 7 that
the Serum Institute had 500 million excess doses
of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and would temporar-
ily slash production in half. COVAX has reiterated
that its goal to distribute 2 billion doses by the first
quarter of 2022 will rely on SII’s playing a key role,
but says it will take time to figure out logistical is-
sues before ordering from the company again.
In March 2021, before it was clear that the
world’s bet on Poona walla was going bust, he
told TIME that he didn’t want to have any regrets
“when history judges my actions.” Seven months
later, in October, he was back to his old confident
self. “It takes time to rebuild trust,” he said, but
expressed certainty that orders would increase in
the coming months. He said the Serum Institute
is capable of both supplying COVAX and meet-
ing India’s domestic vaccine demands. “We have
scaled up more than we promised,” he said, and SII
is champing at the bit to begin shipping millions
of doses around the world. □A shipment of
COVID-19 vaccines
manufactured by
the Serum Institute
of India arrives
in Liberia on
March 5, 2021AHMED JALLANZO—EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK