Cyrus S. Poonawalla (born in 1941) is an Indian billionaire businessman, and the chairman and managing director of the Cyrus Poonawalla Group, which includes the

Serum Institute of India Serum Institute of India (SII) is an Indian biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals company, based in Pune. It is the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines. It was founded by Cyrus Poonawalla in 1966 and is a part of Cyrus Poonawalla Group. ...

, an Indian

biotech Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used by ...

company which is the largest

vaccine A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified. ...

manufacturer in the world and

Poonawalla Fincorp Poonawalla Fincorp Limited, (formerly known as Magma Fincorp) is a Cyrus S. Poonawalla group Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) that focuses on consumer and MSME financing. The company operates more than 279 branches in 21 states, as of 2022. ...

a leading NBFC in India. In 2022, he is ranked number 4 on Forbes India rich list with a net worth of $24.3 billion. He is ranked number 1 in Hurun Global health care rich list 2022.

Career

Poonawalla founded the Serum Institute of India in 1966 and built it to the largest vaccine manufacturer (by doses) in the world. Serum produces over 1.5 billion doses annually of a range of vaccines, including for measles, polio and flu.

Family

Cyrus Poonawalla was born in a

Parsi Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim con ...

family he is the son of Soli Poonawala, who was a horse breeder. He was married to Villoo Poonawalla, who died in 2010. They have a son, Adar, who currently works as the CEO of

Awards

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is confe ...

for his contribution to the field of medicine, by the Government of India in 2005. * The

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Delo ...

"Entrepreneur of the Year" in the category of Healthcare & Life Sciences in November 2007. * The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for India in February 2015. * Honorary doctorate by the

University of Massachusetts Medical School The University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School is a public medical school in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is part of the University of Massachusetts system. It is home to three schools: the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Morningside Grad ...

in June 2018. * Honorary doctorate by the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

in June 2019. *Lokmanya Tilak National Award in August 2021. *Dean’s medal from the

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Johns Hopkins University, a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. As the second independent, degree-granting institution ...

in May 2022. *

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished servi ...

,for his contribution in production of

vaccines A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified.< ...

during

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

,in the field of Trade and Industry, by the Government of India in 2022.

Philanthropy

In May 2019, it was reported that Poonawalla, in partnership with

Naum Koen Naum Koen (Russian: Наум Коен) is an UAE-based Israeli-Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist who is the founder and CEO of NY Koen Group. Koen is the chairman and founder of the Jewish Community Center of UAE. He was named Honorary C ...

, had proposed supplying Ukraine with 100 thousand doses of the measles vaccine for free vaccination.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poonawalla, Cyrus S. Businesspeople from Pune Indian billionaires Indian chief executives Indian businesspeople in the pharmaceutical industry Recipients of the Padma Shri in medicine Living people Savitribai Phule Pune University alumni 20th-century Indian businesspeople 1941 births 21st-century Indian businesspeople Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in trade and industry Parsi people