Billionaire philanthropist Dr Cyrus Poonawalla intends to direct a portion of his charities to fight cases of "rapes and other atrocities” against women. He pledged to set aside several crores, maybe even "hundreds of crores” for the cause. The Poona based entrepreneur conveyed this message on August 5, 2018 to a packed to capacity hall in the city’s JW Marriott Hotel. The low cost, high volume vaccine manufacturer was being felicitated on receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Massachusetts (UM) as well as to mark the inauguration of the Villoo Poonawalla Nurses Hostel at Ruby Hall Clinic (RHC) in Wanowrie. Villoo was Cyrus’ late wife. He recalled he gave her large amounts of money but had no idea where she spent the monies. She gave it to the disadvantaged, he said.
Top: Sharad Pawar (l) Photo: Wikipedia, Dr Cyrus Poonawalla; above: the stage, set to felicitate Poonawalla
The world’s largest producer of vaccines (in terms of volume), Poonawalla explained he could make greater profits by selling his vaccines at Rs 20 a dose instead of Rs 5 to 10. But "instead of making more money than I already have, I deprived my son, Adar, of 10 billion dollars. But like his mother, his money goes to underprivileged children” and other charitable causes. In 2015 Adar donated Rs 100 crores to the Poona Municipal Corporation for the Clean City Initiative (see "A clean collaboration,” Parsiana, January 21, 2016).
Poonawalla referred to the evening function as a "magic moment” and attributed his success to "God’s blessings.” He admitted he had lost faith for a number of years due to certain circumstances but now his belief had been "revived.”
The function at the Marriott was hosted for Poonawalla’s "close friends” by his friend from his school days, Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar, founder leader of the Nationalist Congress Party and a once and present prime minister aspirant. Around 600 to 700 guests that comprised much of the cream of Poona society were present. Pawar recalled Cyrus as a student was "exceptional,” in that once after a late night chicken dhansak party for his classmates at his house, he fell asleep in class the next morning. The teacher sarcastically told him to bring a bed the next time so he could "sleep comfortably.” Early the next day Cyrus showed up in the classroom with a bed! He was an "obedient student,” the seasoned politician stated, tongue-in-cheek.
Dr Parvez Grant, managing trustee of RHC, stated 25 million lives had been saved by the low cost vaccines produced by Poonawalla’s Serum Institute of India (SII). SII has manufactured around 1.3 billion vaccines. "Every second child has his vaccine,” stated Grant. The doses had helped eradicate deadly diseases such as meningitis, measles-rubella in several countries. A new vaccine for rabies is being readied and a "cure” for dengue is in the pipeline.
The cardiologist noted that 300 nurses would stay comfortably in the new nurses’ quarters named in Villoo’s memory. RHC is the largest hospital complex in Maharashtra, he informed the gathering. He mentioned, to much applause, that Poonawalla had been nominated for the Nobel Prize.
The UM citation noted that "What most distinguishes the SII is the philanthropy that imbues the very heart of your business,” (see "Paean for Poonawalla,” Parsiana June 21, 2018). The UM parchment mentioned the vaccines are distributed in 150 countries and SII has partnered with the MassBiologics of their medical school that "resulted in the recent launch of a novel rabies treatment, RabiShield (the first ever rabies human monoclonal antibody) which is believed will save some of the 50,000 lives lost each year to this virulent disease.”