Adar Poonawalla is the current Chief Executive Officer at the Serum Institute of India, founded in 1966 by his father. It is an enormous vaccine manufacturer by the number of doses produced. Recently, Adar Poonawalla was interviewed by a British newspaper agency where he spoke about his death threats pertaining to the deficit in the COVID-19 vaccines in India.
The past few months have seen India desperately grapple with vaccines amidst the severe shortage. The second wave in India was unexpected, with the number of cases reducing since January 2021, but the spike was devastating to the Indian population and quickly spiraled out of control. The shocking question happens to be 'How did India, the largest manufacturer of vaccines, face a vaccine crisis?'
India passed an inexorable breakthrough of having reported over 20 million Covid-19 cases and at least 226,188 people have died from the virus, although the reported death toll is thought to be far lower than the actual death toll.
As of the most recent reports, India has transitioned to herd transmission of the virus due to various religious festivals being held, political rallies, and many other large gatherings, putting the people present at risk and the whole country at large. All international flights from India have been canceled while India still struggles with the deadly virus.
The vaccines do not seem to provide much relief to the Indian population, and the transmission of the virus has increased twofold.
During these trying times, the Chief Executive Officer of Serum Institute of India- the largest vaccine producer worldwide, Adar Poonawalla, vowed to take the lead in the global effort to inoculate the poor against Covid-19. However, the 40-year-old has been finding it increasingly difficult to keep up his promise as the second wave is unparalleled in its deadliness to the Indian population.
Amidst the pandemic, Adar Poonawalla has fled to London claiming to have important unfinished business there while getting multiple threats from Indians. There was a plea in the Bombay High Court asking them to provide Z-plus security to Mr. Poonawalla and his family.
Nevertheless, Adar Pooonawala, in an interview with The New York Times, defended his company and their ambitions claiming that the situation and threats were "nothing we can't handle."
He also admitted that the Serum Institute alone can't vaccinate India anytime soon, much less shoulder the burden of inoculating the world's poor. Adar Poonawalla further claims that "the problem is nobody took the risk that I did early on. I wish that others did."
Manoj Joshi, who is a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, claims that "our capacity is extremely poor. We are a poor country. I hope that we can build some humility into the system."
In 2020, the company run by Adar Poonawalla, partnered with AstraZeneca to produce 1 billion doses of its Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, termed Covishield, in India. The Gates Foundation granted Serum a $300 million grant to supply about 200 million doses of Covishield. Yet another vaccine in development to the Gavi Alliance that is overseeing COVAX, the program to donate vaccines to the Global South.
Serum vowed to sell about 1.1 billion vaccine doses between January and March, according to a review of purchase agreements supplied by UNICEF. By the time India largely stopped vaccine exports, Serum had exported only about 60 million doses, approximately half of it to Gavi. India had claimed more than 120 million.
Subsequently, AstraZeneca has served a legal notice against Serum over delivery delays. In retaliation, Adar Poonawalla claims that the Serum has only "temporarily deferred" its commitments, blaming the Indian government's halt of exports. "This is something coming from India," he said. "It's not the supplier that is defaulting."
Dr. Chandrakant Lahariya, a doctor from New Delhi and an expert in all things related to vaccines, public policy, and health systems, told CNBC that India's massive adult population makes the immunization effort difficult.
He said that along the lines of- even if the projected supply was available, India has opened the vaccination to a far bigger population than probably any setting can expect the vaccines (to cover). It is basically an outcome of limited supply, coupled with a vaccination policy that is not mindful of supplies.
According to Lahariya, vaccine supplies are "unlikely to change drastically." He stated that India requires between 200 to 250 million doses per month to operate COVID-19 vaccination drives to their fullest potential. However, it is facing a huge deficit, with only around 70-80 million doses a month.
No amount of advanced planning could have guaranteed that mammoth slab of supply, which is the need of the hour with the opening of vaccination for 940 million people in India.