Vaccine prince exposes India’s best and worst
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Sunday
January 29, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2023
Vaccine prince exposes India’s best and worst

Coronavirus chronicle

Reuters
04 May, 2021, 10:35 am
Last modified: 04 May, 2021, 02:11 pm

Related News

  • Twin shocks call for stronger domestic policy response
  • Updated Covid vaccines prevented illness from latest variants -CDC
  • Vaccine misinformation spawns 'pure blood' movement
  • China rings in Lunar New Year with most Covid rules lifted
  • WHO recommends that China monitor excess Covid-19 mortality

Vaccine prince exposes India’s best and worst

In an interview with The Times newspaper, he claimed that tycoons and politicians are threatening him in order to secure jabs.

Reuters
04 May, 2021, 10:35 am
Last modified: 04 May, 2021, 02:11 pm
The Serum Institute was founded by Adar Poonawalla's father Cyrus Poonawalla in 1966 Photo: Reuters
The Serum Institute was founded by Adar Poonawalla's father Cyrus Poonawalla in 1966 Photo: Reuters

Adar Poonawalla should be a walking advertisement for India's pharmaceutical prowess. Instead the billionaire owner and chief executive of the Pune-based Serum Institute, the world's largest vaccine maker, has become a symbol of India's fraught ties with its private sector.

Before Covid-19, Serum wasn't a household name even inside the country. Now the unlisted company is India's best hope to get out of its Covid-19 crisis. New cases tallied 392,488 in the past 24 hours; in Goa state 40% of tests are returning positive. The manufacturer's monthly production of up to 70 million doses of Covishield, the local name for AstraZeneca's vaccine, accounts for 90% of nearly doses administered.

That makes complaints from the 40-year-old Poonawalla, son of the company's founder, particularly distressing. In an interview with The Times newspaper, he claimed that tycoons and politicians are threatening him in order to secure jabs. India had given Poonawalla security protection days before the Times interview was published on Saturday, in which he said the pressure made him want to remain in London for an extended period. He's since indicated he will return within a few days.

The root of the problem is New Delhi's vaccine procurement strategy. India decided in April to allow state governments and private hospitals to purchase up to half of the vaccines stocks, although under the new plan they could end up paying double or more what government has paid. That effectively foists the unenviable responsibility of rationing a limited supply of life-saving vaccines onto private companies. It would be better if the government centralised distribution.

Politicians in some rich countries placed early orders for more jabs than they needed, giving manufacturers greater confidence to ramp up production. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration ordered slowly and only after vaccines were approved. Now India's attempt to accelerate its vaccination drive will come at other's expense. The COVAX facility, backed by the World Health Organization for example, was counting on Serum to help supply jabs to lower-income countries where case counts are also rising. Those export deals are now on hold.

Poonawalla hasn't helped his image by describing smaller profit margins as philanthropy. But a man charged with saving Indian lives is living in fear, and planning further overseas expansion. It's a terrible look for India.

Context News

- In an interview published on May 1 by UK-based The Times newspaper, Adar Poonawalla, owner of India's Serum Institute, complained of aggression from domestic politicians and tycoons seeking to secure supply of Covid-19 vaccines.

- "'Threats' is an understatement," Poonawalla said. "The level of expectation and aggression is really unprecedented. It's overwhelming. Everyone feels they should get the vaccine. They can't understand why anyone else should get it before them."

- "They are saying if you don't give us the vaccine it's not going to be good . . . It's not foul language. It's the tone. It's the implication of what they might do if I don't comply. It's taking control. It's coming over and basically surrounding the place and not letting us do anything unless we give in to their demands", he added.

- The article added that Poonawalla was in the UK on business and has plans to start vaccine production in countries outside of India.

- After his interview with The Times went viral on Twitter, Poonawalla tweeted indicating that he would return to India "in a few days".

Top News / World+Biz / South Asia

Adar Poonawalla / Serum Institute of India / Serum Institute of India (SII) / Serum Institute / Covid -19 / Vaccine / Coronavirus in India / Coronavirus Vaccine

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Getting gas to India will be even more costly than laying this pipe to China.Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
    Russia can't replace the energy market Putin broke
  • Photo: UNB
    AL won't run away, rather will continue developing Bangladesh: PM in Rajshahi
  • Reconditioned vehicles running out of stock as traders fail to open LCs
    Reconditioned vehicles running out of stock as traders fail to open LCs

MOST VIEWED

  • People walk with their luggage at a railway station during the annual Spring Festival travel rush ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues, in Shanghai, China January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Aly Song
    Holiday trips within China surge after lifting of Covid curbs
  • Photo: Collected
    India launches world’s 1st intranasal Covid vaccine
  • A vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) booster vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub variants is pictured at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah Beier
    US CDC still looking at potential stroke risk from Pfizer bivalent Covid shot
  •  A medical worker checks the IV drip treatment of a patient lying on a bed in the emergency department of a hospital, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Shanghai, China, January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Staff
    China says Covid deaths down by nearly 80 percent
  • Sean Bagley, 14, receives the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) booster vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub variants at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah Beier
    Updated Covid vaccines prevented illness from latest variants -CDC
  • People embrace at the international arrivals gate at Beijing Capital International Airport after China lifted the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) quarantine requirement for inbound travellers in Beijing, China January 8, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
    China says peak Covid infections exceeded 7 million daily, deaths more than 4,000 daily

Related News

  • Twin shocks call for stronger domestic policy response
  • Updated Covid vaccines prevented illness from latest variants -CDC
  • Vaccine misinformation spawns 'pure blood' movement
  • China rings in Lunar New Year with most Covid rules lifted
  • WHO recommends that China monitor excess Covid-19 mortality

Features

Nandita Sharmin's journey to give organic skincare a new identity

Nandita Sharmin's journey to give organic skincare a new identity

6h | Mode
Illustration: TBS

'The silver lining is that the worst is sort of behind us': Hamid Rashid, UN economist

9h | Panorama
Photo: Bloomberg

BuzzFeed and AI are a match made in fad city

8h | Panorama
Snipe in flight. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Baikka Beel: 'A world where snipe work late'

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Take your football game to the next level at Next Level academy

Take your football game to the next level at Next Level academy

31m | TBS SPORTS
“Investments risky without consistent policy, reliable data”- SK Bashir Uddin

“Investments risky without consistent policy, reliable data”- SK Bashir Uddin

2h | TBS Round Table
What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

22h | TBS Entertainment
15 Reasons Your Entrepreneurial Career Can Fail

15 Reasons Your Entrepreneurial Career Can Fail

21h | TBS Career

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

3
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

4
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

5
Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!
Bangladesh

Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]ws.net