Cyrus Poonawalla, also known as India’s Vaccine king is now the 12th richest man in India. Interestingly, he has multiplied his wealth close to 5 times in the last decade. His major source of income is Serum Institute of India (SII), the company which is popular for its affordable vaccines.
Poonawalla started Serum Institute of India in 1966, with an initial investment of $12,000. His main focus has always been developing vaccines by extracting serum from horses. Currently, SII is the world’s largest vaccine maker in terms of doses produced and sells 1.5 billion doses globally. This achievement has made Cyrus make a net worth of $9.5 billion.
In only 7 years, SII’s revenue grew from Rs 9.87 billion in FY08 to Rs 48.37 billion in FY15. Recently, the company invested $4.1 billion (approx. Rs 3,000 crore) to open the world’s largest vaccine facility at the Poonawalla Biotech Park at Manjri, Pune. It supplies vaccines to UNICEF and the Pan American Health Organisation. Exports contribute close to 85% of the total revenues.
Some of the vaccines from SII are as affordable as Rs 5 a dose. This has helped the company to retain big customers like the Indian government, WHO, UNICEF and GAVI.
“By selling some of our vaccines at ₹5 [a dose] we often sell at a loss. On average, margins are 20-30 percent, he says, which sometimes fall to 5 percent,”
Adar Poonawalla, CEO, SII says.
Not only this, Adar Poonawalla, the son of Cyrus Poonawalla looking to expand the business by entering other industries. He has set up Poonawalla Finance that provides unsecured personal loans. Within four months of starting, Poonawalla Finance has established its business in 23 cities. Also, SII is planning to launch new low-cost vaccines for dengue and pneumonia.
Source: BusinessInsider
