For his "outstanding work in developing and delivering affordable vaccines and contributing to the Indian biosciences industry for decades now,” Dr Cyrus Poonawalla was awarded the Dean’s Medal by The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The founder and chairman of the Serum Institute of India (SII) that is at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19 stated, "Our constant endeavor has been to provide high-quality vaccines with regular supplies, which ensure excellent immunization coverage to children and families worldwide at affordable, sustainable price points. This award is a motivation for SII to take up bigger challenges ahead and fortifies our objective of inclusive healthcare for all.”
Above: Dr Cyrus Poonawalla (r) conferred Dean’s Medal
Presented during the School’s convocation ceremony on May 21, 2022 the announcement on SII’s website stated that past award winners include social justice advocate Cheryl Dorsey, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Laurie Garrett and former Baltimore health commissioner Leana Wen.
Poonawalla was honored by the government of India with a Padma Bhushan award earlier this year (see "Padma for Poonawalla,” Parsiana, April 21-May 6, 2022).
Speaking to NDTV.com on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, SII chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla told the channel on May 23 that he was hoping "to use the platform (in Davos)... to draft some sort of a global pandemic treaty which would help the global solidarity of coming together.
"We all know what went wrong and what went right in this pandemic and some of the things that went wrong in terms of sharing of raw materials and vaccines, recognizing vaccine certificates, global harmonization of clinical trials and manufacturing, making more vaccines and treatments accessible globally — these are the kind of things I would hope to establish,” he stated. "It may not be enforceable, but at least it offers some kind of framework and commitment like you see for climate change,” Adar added.
SII’s vaccine portfolio includes polio vaccine, diphtheria, tetanus, BCG, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella as well as Covid-19 vaccines. "Through strategic foresight and at-risk manufacturing, SII produced 1.9 billion doses and supplied 1.65 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide,” states a company’s press note. SII supplies the world’s cheapest vaccines to as many as 171 countries.
Farrokh Jijina