Cyrus Poonawalla – The Vaccine Visionary at $47 Per Second

Cyrus Poonawalla’s a name you might not know, but his work’s probably saved someone you love. With $25 billion to his name, he grew his fortune by $1.5 billion last year—about $47 per second. That’s enough to buy a nice dinner every tick of the clock! His core business? Vaccines, via the Serum Institute of India. This Pune-based powerhouse churns out shots for diseases like measles, polio, and, yep, COVID-19. Remember Covishield? That’s his baby, and it’s jabbed millions of arms worldwide.

Poonawalla’s journey started with horses—his family bred them—but he saw a bigger calling: affordable vaccines. In 1966, he founded Serum, and now it’s the world’s largest vaccine maker by volume. We’re talking billions of doses a year, sold cheap enough that even poor countries can afford them. During the pandemic, Serum was a global lifeline, pumping out Covishield while Poonawalla’s son Adar ran the show. It’s not just business—it’s a mission, and it’s paying off at $47 a second.

He’s not all lab coats and numbers, though. Poonawalla’s got a taste for luxury—think vintage cars and a sprawling mansion. But his real flex? Helping humanity while stacking cash. Critics say he’s too profit-focused, but when you’re vaccinating half the planet’s kids, you’re doing something right. For us regular folks, it’s inspiring: find a gap, fix it, and maybe you’ll cash in too—one life-saving second at a time.