The Poonawallas of the Serum Institute of India (SII) who are preparing a Covid-19 vaccine in collaboration with Oxford University and the AstraZeneca biopharmaceutical company have very kindly agreed to set aside 60,000 vials for the Parsi community. Former Bombay Parsi Punchayet chairman Dinshaw Mehta wrote to SII founder, billionaire Dr Cyrus Poonawalla on July 23, 2020 "humbly requesting” vials from "the first batch” of the vaccine be reserved for the community. Poonawalla agreed the same night, states Mehta.
Dr Cyrus (l) and Adar Poonawalla
On July 26 social entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala had tweeted, "On a lighter note since Parsis are to be an extinct race...there (should be a special quota to save extinct races). Why not if a Parsi is at the forefront” of producing the vaccine? To which SII chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla replied, "Yes, @RonnieScrewvala, we will keep more than enough for the community. Our production capacity of just one day will be enough to cover every Parsi on the planet...given the size of the community.” There are around 50,000 Parsis in India (the 2011 government of India census put the figure at 57,264); the global total including Iran would be around 1,00,000.
By volume, the Poona based SII is the largest manufacturer of vaccines in the world.