Poonawalla family pledges $66 million to Oxford University

The Pune-based Poonawalla-family -- the largest vaccine maker in the world -- has donated 50 million pounds ($66.2 million) for establishing a vaccine research centre at the University of Oxford.

The donation will see physical creation of a new building -- The Poonawalla Vaccines Research Building -- on Old Road Campus, Oxford.

The funding commitment came from Serum Life Sciences, according to a press statement issued by the University of Oxford.

Serum Life Sciences is wholly-owned by the Poonawalla family, owners of the Serum Institute of India, who have dedicated their life’s work to the development, manufacture and supply of affordable vaccines to low- and middle-income countries.

The Poonawalla Group is spearheaded by Chairman Dr Cyrus Poonawalla while his son Adar Poonawalla is the CEO of Serum Institute of India while Natasha Poonawala is the Chair of Serum Life Sciences.

The Poonawalla Vaccines Research Building will be built on the same site as the recently announced Oxford University Pandemic Sciences Centre, on the University’s Old Road Campus.

The buildings will share infrastructure and support facilities for scientific research and academic teaching and together will form a unique hub that will significantly contribute to global pandemic preparedness and responsiveness.

Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom, in a tweet said: “Fantastic news that @SerumInstIndia has committed £50 million in funding to @UniofOxford to establish the Poonawalla Vaccines Research Building. The world-class @JennerInstitute team will use this new building for their critical vaccines research.”

Responding to it, the SII, in a tweet said: “Thank you for those kind words, Secretary of State @sajidjavid. We look forward to building on our successful partnership and research on infectious diseases.”

The building will be a new home for the world-class Jenner Institute team behind the Oxford University/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, and other leading Oxford teams such as those developing a malaria vaccine.

The donation will be the University of Oxford’s largest-ever gift for vaccines research.

The main focus of the research taking place in the Poonawalla Building will be vaccinology. This new facility will house over 300 research scientists and itself will provide the focus and scale for the University’s major vaccine development programmes allowing a rapid, productive and timely expansion of this fast-growing translational area.

The donation reinforces and builds on the Serum Institute of India’s long-standing partnership with Oxford University. Importantly, the Poonawalla Building will house the headquarters and main laboratory space of the Jenner Institute, the world-leading academic vaccine institute named after Edward Jenner, the father of vaccination. The most recent Serum Institute-Jenner Institute collaboration saw the rapid development and global roll-out of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at scale.

Further Serum Institute-Jenner Institute collaborations include an agreement for Serum Institute to manufacture and develop, with large scale supply, the Jenner Institute’s promising R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine, currently in Phase III trials, prioritising countries with high malaria burdens.

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