Dr Cyrus Poonawalla embarked on his journey to establish Serum Institute of India with a capital equivalent of US$25,000, in order to make low-cost vaccines available in his country. Today, Serum Institute is the world's largest producer of vaccines by number of doses, producing more than 1.5 billion doses a year of life-saving vaccines used in over 170 countries to combat infections.

Under Dr Poonawalla's leadership marked by vision, grit and innovative approach, Serum Institute has attained world leadership by reaching the unmatched figure of protecting more than two-thirds of the infant population across the globe, thus saving the lives of more than 30 million mostly underprivileged children across the globe, who would have otherwise perished without the availability of affordable vaccines. The impact of Dr Poonawalla's work is undeniably revolutionary.

As a philanthropist, Dr Poonawalla has donated millions of dollars for public causes such as charitable schools, hospitals, public parks and the cleaning Pune City movement. Additionally, hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of vaccines have been donated free of charge or heavily subsidised in areas where they were needed most.