On the outskirts of Pune, in India’s western state of Maharashtra, at the 100-acre campus of Serum Institute of India (SII), CEO Adar Poonawalla proposes to set up a plug-and-play vaccine-making facility in preparation for the next pandemic.
Since the facility can handle all different technologies, Poonawalla has offered 300,000 sq ft within it to all world leaders and countries in case they need an urgent supply of vaccine doses or require any product in the event of an outbreak. The first product from this facility will be the HPV vaccine.
Talking to Business Standard, Poonawala said currently the company’s 1,585-gallon disposable bioreactors are busy producing the bulk of Covovax, the Novavax vaccine. SII will start making the Omicron variant of Novavax vaccine soon, and is working with the U.S. firm to develop a flu-shot and Covid19 vaccine combination.
One of SII’s production heads said, “When the pandemic hit, we were making 1.5 billion doses a year and we thought that was enough. And now we are talking of 4 billion doses a year… nothing is impossible.”
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
