The Serum Institute of India is set to license several vaccines which will be supplied both to the Indian government and other countries, said Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the vaccine manufacturer. In an exclusive interview to Poonawalla spoke about the company’s plans, updates on vaccines in the pipeline, its mergers and acquisitions (M&A) strategy among other key areas. Edited excerpts:
How does Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the WHO impact the global health sector and companies like Serum?
It could slow down a few things that are going on in the world. My concern is, and I hope it doesn’t happen, that vaccine pre-qualifications and getting vaccines approved globally—since the WHO is the global standard that most countries go by, could result in delays in getting new vaccines approved.
What progress has been made on vaccine equity?
WHO has been working on something called the Pandemic Accords, which aims to bring vaccine equity, not just during a pandemic, but perhaps at other times as well. This would streamline the process of registering and getting vaccines and other medicines approved across the board, so that companies don’t have to go to every individual country, as this takes time and involves costs.
What are the company’s next big projects in next-generation vaccines?
Ever since Covid, we’ve invested $2 billion in capex, research, and clinical trials to get new vaccines. As a result, we’ve built facilities and are on the verge of licensing several vaccines. For example, the HPV and malaria vaccines are already licensed. We’re looking at chikungunya and monkeypox vaccines in about a year and a half. We’re looking at the dengue vaccine in about two and a half to three years. The yellow fever vaccine is another one.
Does the $2 billion capex investment mean the capex cycle is over?
The capex cycle, I wouldn’t say is over, but I would say 80% of that is done. Maybe after another few years, we may have to again put in big investment to build more facilities for new technologies and Messenger RNA. We’re even looking at giving vaccines instead of needles through other devices, including patches.
Are you looking at WHO pre-qualification for the HPV vaccine?
We should be pre-qualified in 2026 by the WHO if everything goes well. This year and part of next year will be focused on trying to start supplying to the Indian government. We’ve already launched this vaccine to prevent cervical cancer in women. By the end of this year, hopefully, we should have the national immunisation programme taking the vaccine and rolling it out.
Will the new vaccines focus mainly on India, or be split 50-50 between India and the world?
Every vaccine strategy we consider has to have a global demand. All of these vaccines start off in India, and after protecting the national population and serving our nation’s needs, we then move on to exporting.
What is your M&A strategy?
We prefer partnering to share the risk and working with partners to co-develop or develop these vaccines and then make the process very efficient in terms of manufacturing. In terms of investments and M&As, we do that outside of Serum. Every five or six years, I like to churn that portfolio. In Serum, we don’t do a lot of M&As because we don’t raise capital. We don’t want to merge with other entities and complicate things. It’s very important for us to keep our independence. You’re not beholden to stakeholders and investors, whereby if Serum was listed, I wouldn’t be able to make half the decisions that I do in terms of taking risks or building capacity ahead of time and doing all these things.
What’s next after the strategic alliance with Karan Johar?
I think the investment with Dharma was more on passion and having the power of storytelling can be very influential. We also have plans to build vertically our own music label, our own distribution in Dharma and so many other things. I think our focus will remain on financial services and Serum as business entities.
Are you interested in making hospitality or real estate investments overseas?
We looked at some hotels overseas and in India, but the valuations were very high. So we’ve left it. But if there are some good hotel chains, we may look at making some investments there. The reason why we didn’t go ahead at the moment is because the interest rates are so high. I think once the interest rates cool off, we can re-look at that space.
With the budget around the corner, any suggestions or expectations?
I think just keeping an eye on regulation and ensuring that regulators across the board, whether in health, finance, or any other sector, don’t hinder progress and business but stick to the main areas.
Is there any whitespace in the financial services portfolio that Poonawala Finance hasn’t covered?
We are going to add several verticals..We want to go into gold loans, labs, and more into secured lending. We have been doing a lot of retail unsecured lending. So we wanna shift and pivot to more of that, again in line with what RBI and others and the general trend is going at.
How does Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the WHO impact the global health sector and companies like Serum?
It could slow down a few things that are going on in the world. My concern is, and I hope it doesn’t happen, that vaccine pre-qualifications and getting vaccines approved globally—since the WHO is the global standard that most countries go by, could result in delays in getting new vaccines approved.
What progress has been made on vaccine equity?
WHO has been working on something called the Pandemic Accords, which aims to bring vaccine equity, not just during a pandemic, but perhaps at other times as well. This would streamline the process of registering and getting vaccines and other medicines approved across the board, so that companies don’t have to go to every individual country, as this takes time and involves costs.
What are the company’s next big projects in next-generation vaccines?
Ever since Covid, we’ve invested $2 billion in capex, research, and clinical trials to get new vaccines. As a result, we’ve built facilities and are on the verge of licensing several vaccines. For example, the HPV and malaria vaccines are already licensed. We’re looking at chikungunya and monkeypox vaccines in about a year and a half. We’re looking at the dengue vaccine in about two and a half to three years. The yellow fever vaccine is another one.
Does the $2 billion capex investment mean the capex cycle is over?
The capex cycle, I wouldn’t say is over, but I would say 80% of that is done. Maybe after another few years, we may have to again put in big investment to build more facilities for new technologies and Messenger RNA. We’re even looking at giving vaccines instead of needles through other devices, including patches.
Are you looking at WHO pre-qualification for the HPV vaccine?
We should be pre-qualified in 2026 by the WHO if everything goes well. This year and part of next year will be focused on trying to start supplying to the Indian government. We’ve already launched this vaccine to prevent cervical cancer in women. By the end of this year, hopefully, we should have the national immunisation programme taking the vaccine and rolling it out.
Will the new vaccines focus mainly on India, or be split 50-50 between India and the world?
Every vaccine strategy we consider has to have a global demand. All of these vaccines start off in India, and after protecting the national population and serving our nation’s needs, we then move on to exporting.
What is your M&A strategy?
We prefer partnering to share the risk and working with partners to co-develop or develop these vaccines and then make the process very efficient in terms of manufacturing. In terms of investments and M&As, we do that outside of Serum. Every five or six years, I like to churn that portfolio. In Serum, we don’t do a lot of M&As because we don’t raise capital. We don’t want to merge with other entities and complicate things. It’s very important for us to keep our independence. You’re not beholden to stakeholders and investors, whereby if Serum was listed, I wouldn’t be able to make half the decisions that I do in terms of taking risks or building capacity ahead of time and doing all these things.
What’s next after the strategic alliance with Karan Johar?
I think the investment with Dharma was more on passion and having the power of storytelling can be very influential. We also have plans to build vertically our own music label, our own distribution in Dharma and so many other things. I think our focus will remain on financial services and Serum as business entities.
Are you interested in making hospitality or real estate investments overseas?
We looked at some hotels overseas and in India, but the valuations were very high. So we’ve left it. But if there are some good hotel chains, we may look at making some investments there. The reason why we didn’t go ahead at the moment is because the interest rates are so high. I think once the interest rates cool off, we can re-look at that space.
With the budget around the corner, any suggestions or expectations?
I think just keeping an eye on regulation and ensuring that regulators across the board, whether in health, finance, or any other sector, don’t hinder progress and business but stick to the main areas.
Is there any whitespace in the financial services portfolio that Poonawala Finance hasn’t covered?
We are going to add several verticals..We want to go into gold loans, labs, and more into secured lending. We have been doing a lot of retail unsecured lending. So we wanna shift and pivot to more of that, again in line with what RBI and others and the general trend is going at.
