Serum Institute of India has made available vaccines at the price of a ‘cup of a tea’ to poor countries, the vaccine giant chairman Cyrus Poonawalla said on Monday. He said that the affordable pricing of Serum Institute’s vaccines is the reason behind the company being the largest jab maker in the world by the number of doses and not by value.
He said that two-thirds of the world population has been protected by one or more of SII’s vaccines. “Most of our vaccines have been used by poorer nations. UNICEF and other philanthropic organizations came forward to buy vaccine which I provided along with the help of my staff and scientists to make it affordable at a price of a cup of tea and this has made the world self-sufficient for most of the communicable vaccines required to protect children and adults,” he said.
Poonawalla was speaking at the Pune International Business Summit, organised by the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA), where he was felicitated for receiving the Padma Bhushan Award.
He said that when he started the small facility in Pune, he was not aware that it would later bring in such a huge success, but the affordable pricing made all the difference.
The main crux of the matter is that the same templet that is low cost, high production, was applied to make 90 per cent of India’s requirement of COVID vaccine, Poonawalla said while speaking at the summit.
“All over the world, they are surprised that how a company in India has been able to provide vaccines to protect the rest of the countries. Not just Africa, I must stress that 170 countries worldwide use SII vaccines,” he added.
“Experts from all over the world have estimated that around 30 million children’s lives were saved because we had provided the affordable vaccines,” he said. Poonawalla added that not only Africa, 170 countries across the world still use vaccines from Serum Institute.
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