‘Vaccine prince’ who came crashing back to earth

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  ‘Vaccine prince’ who came crashing back to earth

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Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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1. The story: The coronavirus pandemic in 2020 saw the brand of Serum Institute of India Pune and its CEO Adar Poonawalla suddenly shine worldwide. Mr Poonawalla was being hailed as the world’s vaccine saviour. Things have turned quite different since.
2. Vaccine Prince: Poonawalla, the billionaire “vaccine prince” who took over the business from his father Cyrus 10 years ago, embraced the spotlight, extolling his company’s role at the forefront of the global vaccine race. India’s PM even visited Serum’s factory in a sign of his approval and in January donated millions of its Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine doses as part of a diplomatic campaign to eclipse China and demonstrate his country’s pharma power.
3. Collapsed: But by end April 2021, Poonawalla faced a reckoning as India staggered badly under a brutal second wave of infections. Despite warning that it would take until 2024 to inoculate the world, his company has been vilified over allegations of price gouging and its failure to meet its overseas vaccine demands. He shifted to his London mansion before the UK barred flights from India. The Serum Institute has also been hit by lawsuits from global governments for failing to meet contractual agreements for supplies, while Poonawalla said threats had been made personally against him. The Indian government provided him with security guards.
4. Poor rate of vaccination: Poonawalla has been blamed for the just 2 per cent of India being fully vaccinated. He pointed out that the government had not placed enough orders ahead of the second wave, and that he was just the manufacturer, and was being attacked unreasonably. Poonawalla embraced the crisis and invested in Covid vaccines to prove that his company could inoculate the masses at an affordable price, compared with its western competitors.
5. Global criticism: Covax, the UN-backed vaccine alliance, had expected to receive more than 100m vaccines from the Serum Institute between February and May, but received 19.8 m doses, excluding India. Sajjan Jindal, chair of industrial conglomerate JSW and one of the country’s most prominent tycoons, has said that Poonawalla should have done more to work with the government and boost vaccine production. He even accused Poonawalla of using “a kind of ransom language” to secure public subsidies and of investing in the UK rather than in India. 
6. Facts: It was in the 1990s, when the Serum Institute won approval from the World Health Organization to export vaccines to developing markets, and the company gained an international reputation. Poonawalla became chief executive in 2011, and focused on expansion, diversifying the portfolio of vaccines and investing in research. In the early stages of the pandemic in 2020, the Serum Institute was hailed for its role in “vaccinating the world”. However, signs of strain soon appeared. Poonawalla’s pledge to boost Serum Institute’s production capacity of the Covid vaccine from 60m-70m a month to 100m by March has been delayed until July.  

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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