Serum’s goal is to sell vaccines at the price of a cup of tea: Cyrus Poonawalla

Serum Institute of India’s chairman and MD Cyrus Poonawalla on Monday said his company works with the goal to sell vaccines at the price of a cup of tea and make them affordable for everyone. It is for this reason that Serum is the largest vaccine maker in the world by the number of doses but not by value, he added.

“The company has been following the low-cost, high-volume business model. Nearly two-thirds of the world’s infant population is protected by one or more of our vaccines and most of Serum’s vaccines have been used by poorer nations, Unicef and other philanthropic organisations,” he said.

Poonawalla was speaking at a felicitation ceremony organised for him by the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture in Pune.

“These vaccines are provided at an affordable price of a cup of tea. There are 170 countries using Serum’s vaccine and around 30 million children’s lives have been saved because they were provided vaccines at an affordable price,” Poonawala said.

The same template of low-cost, high value, high production has been applied to the Covid-19 vaccines, he said, adding that almost 90% people in India have received Serum’s Covishield vaccine.