Biography
Son of a horse breeder, Cyrus Poonawalla founded Serum Institute of India in 1966 and built it into the world's largest vaccine maker (by doses). Headquartered in Pune city, close to Mumbai, Serum produces over 1.5 billion doses annually of a range of vaccines, including for measles, polio and flu. Under his U.K.-educated son Adar, Serum's CEO, the company invested $800 million at the peak of the pandemic to build a new factory in Pune to make Covid-19 vaccines. Poonawalla's assets include a majority stake in listed financial services firm Poonawalla Fincorp as well as a stake in The Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pune. In 2023, his son Adar bought Aberconway House, a mansion in London's Mayfair, for 138 million pounds.