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). 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 to build a new factory to make Covid-19 vaccines. Serum has multiple Covid-19 vaccine partnerships and produces Covishield, the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. Poonawalla's assets include a majority stake in listed financial services firm Poonawalla Fincorp.
