Adar Poonawalla Featured In Time Magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People of 2021’

Serum Institute of India Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla was among the Indians featured in on the Time magazine list of “The 100 most influential people of 2021”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also made it to the list.

Poonawalla’s company manufactures the Covid-19 vaccine, Covishield, which has been jointly developed by the Oxford University and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Covishield was the first vaccine to get emergency use authorisation in India in January.

The Serum Institute is the largest vaccine manufacturer in terms of doses produced and sold worldwide, according to the company’s website.

Journalist Abhishyant Kidangoor in his piece on Poonawalla wrote that his company’s assurance to provide 1.1 billion, or 110 crore, Covid-19 doses was the “backbone of the plan for global vaccine access” called Covax. The programme was started by various institutions, including the World Health Organization, to provide vaccines to poor countries.

“But over the course of this year, a series of issues – a fire at his plant in Pune, India; trouble securing necessary raw materials; and a vaccine export ban amid India’s second wave of Covid-19 – slowed his ambitions, and left many countries scrambling to find other sources of the vaccines,” Kidangoor wrote.

The journalist added that the Covid-19 pandemic is not over yet and Poonawalla could help still help end it.

“The Serum Institute has almost doubled production of Covid-19 vaccines since May and is adding newer vaccines – including Novavax and Russia’s Sputnik V – to its portfolio in the coming months,” he wrote.

Kidangoor added: “Whether Poonawalla can right the ship this time will determine which side of history he falls on – and, more importantly, how quickly the world emerges from the pandemic.”

Source: Click Here