Pune-based vaccine manufacturing company Serum Institute of India (SII) has pledged 50 million pounds ($66.2 million) to the University of Oxford for setting up a research campus to be named after the Poonawalla family.

The investment was made through the company's Serum Life Sciences unit, Oxford University said on Wednesday. The research building will be named after Serum Institute’s owners, the Poonawalla family. The pledge comes after the successful partnership between Oxford University, UK pharma giant AstraZeneca and SII to produce COVID-19 vaccines that have helped India fight the pandemic. These vaccines are also being supplied to other low- and middle-income countries as they are affordable and easy to handle unlike the Pfizer and Moderna doses that have to be stored in deep freezers at -70 degrees Celsius. 

SII has also agreed with the Jenner Institute, which was behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, to produce and develop Jenner's R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine on a large scale. The shot is currently in late-stage trials.

SII was founded in 1966 in Pune by Adar Poonawalla’s father Cyrus Poonawalla who was also conferred an honorary degree by Oxford University.

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