All in a day's work

FROM VACCINES TO MOVIES AND NOW A DOSE OF SPORTS, ADAR POONAWALLA IS MOST INDUSTRIOUS WHEN OPPORTUNITY BECKONS

- ALOKANANDA CHAKRABORTY

HE CERTAINLY DOESN'T complain about the noise when opportunity knocks.

Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla wedged his way back into the spotlight this week witha carefully-worded, single-sentence tweet: "At the right valuation, @RCBTweets isagreat team'. Byall accounts, Poonawallais the front-runner to snap up IPLteam and 2025 season winner Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) from the team’s current owner United Spirits, a subsidiary of global beverage giant Diageo.

The 44-year-old University of Westminster, London, graduate,hasanimpeccablerecord of placing great bets.

In 2020, after the world had gone throughawhole year of the Covid-19 pandemicand lockdowns and social distancingwere de rigueur, the Serum Institute of India (SII) partnered with the British-Swedish pharmaceuticalcompany AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford to manufacture the Covid-19 vaccine originally designated AZD1222 and _ popularly known as Covishield. It was a calculated risk -- SII began to manufacture the vaccine before clinical trials were fully completed. The decision ensured a faster rollout if the trials proved successful.

If they didn't, it also meant that SII would be sitting ona stockpile of dud products — and billions in losses.