Cyrus Poonawalla, also known as the vaccine king, belongs to a family with decades-old ties to India's horse racing circuit. Poonawalla was born on May 11, 1941, and by the age of 20, he decided not to follow his family's footsteps. 


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Cyrus Poonawalla was educated at Bishops School, Poona (now Puna, a city in Maharashtra), and graduated from the Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce (BMCC) in 1966, and first experimented with cars. He built a $120 prototype sports car modeled on the D-type Jaguar along with his school friend. But he scrapped the idea as producing the sports car on a commercial basis required more money than the two friends had. 


Poonawalla founded Serum Institute of India in 1966


Cyrus Poonawalla realised that making a product for the masses would be a smart move and went on to start the Serum Institute of India (SII) in 1966. His company then launched its first therapeutic anti-tetanus serum within two years and began producing anti-tetanus vaccines.


By 1974, the SII also introduced the DTP vaccine, which protected children from diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. It also produced an anti-snake-venom serum for snakebites in 1981.


In 1989, the institute began the production of its Measles Vaccine and within a year, the company became the country's largest vaccine manufacturer. 


Subsequently, the Serum Institute of India got accredited by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1994 to export vaccines from India and started supplying high-quality vaccines to United Nations agencies.


By 1998, Poonawalla's company was exporting vaccines to over 100 countries and by the year 2000, one out of every two children in the world was vaccinated by a vaccine of Serum Institute of India.


He was awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution to the field of medicine in 2005, and then the Padma Bhushan, for his contribution to the production of vaccines during Covid-19, in the field of Trade and Industry, in 2022.



Serum Institute of India is world's largest vaccine manufacturer 


The Serum Institute of India has today emerged as the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold. The institute produces over 1.5 billion doses annually, which includes Polio vaccine, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hib, BCG, r-Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps, Rubella as well as Pneumococcal vaccines. 


The SII also has multiple Covid-19 vaccine partnerships and produces Covishield -- the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.


It is estimated that about 65% of the children across the world receive at least one vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute. 


Cyrus Poonawalla has a net worth of Rs 2,25,000 crore


According to Forbes, Cyrus Poonawalla was India's fourth richest in 2022 and ranked 68th on the world's billionaires list in 2023.


He has a net worth of Rs 2,25,000 crore.


Cyrus Poonawalla was married to the late Villoo Poonawalla and has a son Adar, who is currently the chief executive officer (CEO) and executive director at the Serum Institute and is leading Serum's charge into new drugs and markets.