Adar Poonawala  is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Serum Institute of India. Founded in 1966 by his father Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, it is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by the number of doses produced, as of 2017. Here is he seen taking the Covishield vaacine, which his comapny has collaborated and produced.
I wish India & Sri @narendramodi ji great success in launching the world’s largest COVID vaccination roll-out. It brings me great pride that #COVISHIELD is part of this historic effort & to endorse it’s safety & efficacy, I join our health workers in taking the vaccine myself. pic.twitter.com/X7sNxjQBN6
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) January 16, 2021
The government has already bought 11 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covishield shot, produced by the Serum Institute of India and there are plans to provide 5 to 6 crore more doses by February, SII said.
Earlier, Adar Poonawalla said the SII is not only providing the vaccine in India, “but it is also committed to provide it to other countries who are looking at India at this point”.
Around 100 people will be vaccinated in each of the 3,006 centers across the country on the first day, the Health Ministry said.
COVISHIELD Co-developed by the University of Oxford and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca and known as Covishield in India, the vaccine was the first on which a scientific study was published based on Phase 3 clinical trials.
