Serum Institute of India is currently run by Adar Poonawalla. (File)
Vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII) has pledged £50 million ($66.2 million) to Oxford University to set up a research campus that also houses the institute behind the shooting. AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19.
The investment was made through the company’s Serum Life Sciences unit, the University of Oxford said on Wednesday. The research building will be named after the owners of the Serum, the Poonawalla family. The commitment builds on a partnership between the University of Oxford, AstraZeneca and SII, the world’s largest vaccine producer and maker of the UK duo’s version of the COVID-19 vaccine for low-income countries low and medium income.
SII has also agreed with the Jenner Institute, which is behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, to manufacture and develop Jenner’s R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine on a large scale. This injection is currently in the final testing phase.
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, according to Forbes. In 2019, Cyrus was also awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University.
It is now run by his son Adar Poonawalla, whose wife Natasha Poonawalla heads Serum Life Sciences.
In September, Poonawallas invested £50 million in Oxford Biomedica to help fund the development of a COVID-19 gun factory.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from the feed provided.)
