Vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII) has pledged 50 million pounds ($66.2 million) to Oxford University to set up a research campus, which is also the AstraZeneca-Oxford institute behind the COVID-19 shot Will keep
Oxford University said on Wednesday that the investment has been made through the Indian company’s Serum Life Sciences unit. Anusandhan Bhavan will be named after the Poonawalla family, the billionaire owners of Serum. The pledge builds on a collaboration between Oxford University, AstraZeneca and SII, the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines and a British duo of a version of COVID-19 shot for low- and middle-income countries.
SII has also agreed with the Jenner Institute behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to mass-produce and develop Jenner’s R21/Matrix-M malaria shot. The shot is currently in late-stage trials.
According to Forbes, SII was founded in 1966 in the western Indian city of Pune by Cyrus Poonawalla, the son of a horse breeder and the fifth richest man in India. In 2019, Cyrus was also awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University.
It is currently run by his son Adar Poonawalla, whose wife Natasha Poonawalla is the head of Serum Life Sciences. An avid fan of luxury cars and horse racing, the pair is often seen shoulder to shoulder with Hollywood and Bollywood stars.
Poonawalla had in September invested 50 million pounds in Oxford Biomedica to help develop a plant that manufactures COVID-19 shots.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.
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