C yrus Poonawalla is an Indian self-made billionaire and the founder of the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by the number of doses produced. With a background in horse breeding, Poonawalla identified an opportunity to use retired horses to produce life-saving antitoxins and serums. He founded the Serum Institute in 1966 with a small investment, driven by the mission to make vaccines affordable and accessible.

Under his leadership, the company became a global powerhouse, supplying a wide range of low-cost vaccines for diseases like measles, polio, and tetanus to immunization programs in India and across the developing world. The Serum Institute gained massive global prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it became a key manufacturing partner for the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine (which it produced under the name Covishield), supplying hundreds of millions of doses. His son, Adar Poonawalla, now serves as the company's CEO, but Cyrus remains the chairman and architect of this global public health giant.