Poonawalla: "world class"

he Padma Shri was conferred on him by the President of India in his honors list on India’s Republic Day, January 26, 2005. Se­lected "Person of the Year 2004” by BioSpectrum (which covers the people, products and business of biotechnology) and Poonawalla group company Serum Institute of India chosen BioPharma Company of the year 2004, chairman and managing director Dr Cyrus Poona­walla is riding a new high.

"The Padma Shri was awarded (in the category of trade) in recognition of my putting Serum Institute of India on the global map of vaccines. We export to over 130 countries worldwide and 50 percent of children immunized in 2004 against measles and DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) have been vaccinated with Serum Institute’s vaccines,” Poonawalla told Parsiana. The Padma Shri is very obviously a prestigious award as it means national recognition, he added.

With revenues of over Rs 500 crore and vaccines and immunobiologicals exported from its state of the art facility at Hadap­sar in Poona, the Serum Institute is recognized by the Government of India as an export and trading house.

Serum Institute has expended Rs 200 crore "on setting up of world class GMP (good manufacturing practices) premises for some very important new vaccines that are developed and are already in Phase-I clinical trials study — the conjugate meningitis vaccine, haemophilus influen­zae vaccine (commonly known as HIB vaccine) and combination vaccine where children can be protected in one shot for tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, Hepatitis-B and haemo­philus influenzae. The expansion also involves a whole range of anti-cancer products, which have now gone off patents in the US and European Union markets,” Poonawalla told Parsiana.

Poonawalla was 22 when he started operations in 1966 (see "Spurs to Success,” Parsia­na, August 2002) as a small 20-man unit, manufacturing at first tetanus antitoxin followed by fluid ­tetanus toxoid. The company has steadily ex­panded its product portfolio and by 1999 was recognized as the largest producer of measles and DTP vaccines in the world. The year 2001 saw the Serum Institute launch the indigenously manufactured recombinant Hepa­titis-B vaccine; in 2002 the BCG ­vaccine, in 2004 the first indigenously developed Human Diploid Cell rabies vaccine... The company also commenced in 1997 the export of anti-cancer pro­ducts, as per company sources and information available on its website www. seruminstitute.com

Poonawalla: national recognition

Dr M. K. Bhan, secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, presented the Person of the Year award to Poonawalla on December 10, 2004 at a function in Bangalore at­tended by "over 320 key officials from the industry, government and academic institutions.” It was one of the largest gatherings in the biotech sector, reports BioSpectrum in its issue of Janu­ary 2005. On the choice of Person of the Year, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, dynamic entrepreneur and head of Biocon Limited, who was chairman of the jury, stated: "Dr Cyrus Poonawalla clearly stood for all the qualities that it takes to be a leader. With his very pioneering spirit, he has built a world-class institution and put India on the vaccine map of the world. Today it is very clearly recognized that India is one of the leading vaccine producers of the world, thanks to the Serum Institute of India.”

In his acceptance speech at the awards function Poonawal­la traced the differences in the enabling environment: "When I started the company in 1966, I never dreamt that the Serum Insti­tute of India... would actually grow to its full potential. During those days, unlike today, we didn’t have a proactive biotechnology department. The industry now is a much more favora­ble place and aspiring biotech­nologists today are much more fortunate. They would be able to go ahead much quicker than we did. We took 35 long years to come to where we are today... I have six members in my team who have not only stood by me (through long years) but also helped me to develop the company... without giving me a heartache for even a single day...

"I have been known more for my racing and breeding per­sonality... and many of my racing colleagues are surprised as to why I took a sabbatical from (being) the head of the board of administration of the Indian Association of Racing and Breeding... I gave up that love and passion of mine for more of a humanitarian cause than high-profile racing... We (Serum Insti­tute) are the lowest-priced in every product that we market not only in India but also across the globe and the result has been amazing. It seems quite likely that we can make India proud to be the number one manufacturer in terms of numbers of vaccines that children get, never in the value. The number would touch two billion doses. My team and I hope to achieve this for India,” Poona­walla stated.