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Cyrus Poonawalla

Chairman, Serum Institute Of India

Search every verified Cyrus Poonawalla interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of the Serum Institute of India, received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the CNBC-TV18 India Business Leader Awards in 2024. In his acceptance speech, he stated that from the beginning he supplied vaccines at half or quarter of the market price, sacrificing hundreds of millions of dollars in profits. He said that the "biggest loser" from this policy was his son, Adar Poonawalla, because it cost him an estimated three to five billion dollars in cash profits. Poonawalla also received the inaugural "Vaccine Hero" award from Gavi, the vaccine alliance, in recognition of his work. He said that the Serum Institute's vaccines have reached 65% of the world's children and that an estimated 25 to 30 million children have survived because of Gavi and UNICEF's efforts. Poonawalla has continued to emphasize the Serum Institute's commitment to affordable pricing. He stated that the company supplies vaccines at the price of a cup of tea and that it does not intend to take advantage of its monopolistic position in vaccines such as measles. He said the company is working on newer vaccines for diseases including pneumonia, rotavirus, meningitis, HPV, and dengue. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Poonawalla said he opposed the mixing of different COVID-19 vaccines, calling it "very wrong" and stating that it had not been proven in field trials. He also said that the Novavax vaccine could not be launched in India until his company received a license to produce it.

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