THE NEW-LOOK SERUM

ADAR POONAWALLA-LED SERUM INSTITUTE OF INDIA WAS THE POSTER CHILD OF THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19 WITH COVISHIELD. IT IS NOW UNDERGOING A TRANSFORMATION BY LEVERAGING R&D TO SHORE UP ITS FINANCES, WHICH FELL OFF A CLIFF AFTER THE PANDEMIC

- BY NEETU CHANDRA SHARMA

THE YEAR WAS 2021. The world had gone through a whole year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Lockdowns and social distancing had been implemented by governments to check the lightning speed of the virus’ transmission.

It was then, even before the most devastating waves of Covid killed millions, that Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, decided to take a bet on an untested vaccine developed by researchers at Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

It was a risky decision since clinical trials had been completed in record time; too quickly, some argued. “We put $800 million of our own money into it,” SII’s Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla said at the time.

The bet paid off, and how. At its peak, SII produced about 200 million doses of the Covishield vaccine a month, or roughly enough to vaccinate the entire population of the UK thrice over. India became a shining example of a successful vaccine rollout, so much so that the Economic Survey of 2022-23 said 90% of the eligible population had been vaccinated by January 2023.

The Poonawallas became the toast of India, with Cyrus Poonawalla, the Chairman of SII, being awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour in India, in 2022.

And it wasn’t just the accolades. Business boomed. From ₹5,446 crore just before the full spread of the pandemic in FY20, revenue jumped to ₹7,201 crore the next year and zoomed to ₹25,645 crore a year later as SII delivered a record number of vaccines for the Indian government’s Covid vaccination programme. Profits too kept pace. From ₹2,251 crore in FY20, they rose to ₹11,116 crore in FY22. As a result, privately held SII became the most valuable unlisted company in India, leading to repeated calls to go public.