At the BIO International Convention in San Diego in June, Gunjan asked 19 American biotech CEOs a simple question before one could give me the right answer: “Who is the largest worldwide maker of vaccines by volume?” It’s not Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, GSK, or AstraZeneca.
100 miles from India’s largest city, Mumbai, on the Deccan Plateau, is Pune, known for automotive manufacturing and for its numerous colleges. It is also home to Serum Institute of India, currently the largest maker of vaccines in the world. Founded in 1966 by Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, the company is currently run by his son, Adar. The company produces over 1.5 billion doses of vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Hib, BCG, r-hepatitis B, measles, mumps, and rubella each year. It has a license to make the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine, which it markets as Covishield and so far has delivered over a billion doses. In addition, the company has a license from Gaithersburg, MD-based Novavax to manufacture its recombinant spike protein nanoparticle vaccine for COVID-19.
In addition to the Serum Institute of India, there are more Indian companies who are contributing significantly to the global COVID-19 vaccine supply.
