
Speaking to CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan at the World Economic Forum (WEF), Davos 2025, Poonawalla emphasised the need for balanced reforms that maintain affordability while enabling companies to generate sufficient profits for reinvestment and research.
“I think the government has to re-look at and relax some of the price controls that we have,” Poonawalla said. “We’re not talking about removing price controls because we want the public at large to be able to access affordable healthcare. But today, we’re selling vaccines at less than the price of roadside shoes and other consumables and commodities. So it needs to be re-looked at, because only then can we make enough profits to reinvest and innovate and make our own vaccines.”
Highlighting the disparity in profitability between vaccine manufacturers and other industries, Poonawalla pointed out that the entire vaccine industry, including his own company, struggles to generate annual profits exceeding $1 billion. This, he noted, is insufficient to develop new vaccines and treatments independently.
“For example, we’ve had to partner with others to get the dengue vaccine, the monkeypox vaccine—all of these will launch in the next one or two years. If you look at companies like Pfizer, GSK, and Sanofi, they make billions of dollars in profits annually. Each of these drugs and vaccines takes years to develop and hundreds of millions of dollars. Take the malaria vaccine for instance; it was all self-funded, but it took us five or six years. We could have done that much faster,” he added.
While acknowledging the critical need for affordable healthcare, Poonawalla stressed that slight adjustments to pricing caps could strike a balance between accessibility and industry growth. “I’m not talking about removing price controls. I’m talking about relaxing price controls. For instance, a vaccine priced at ₹100 or ₹200 today could see a modest increase—instead of price reduction. These are vaccines that protect people for 10 years,” he said.
Below are the excerpts of the interview.
Q: The malaria vaccine was the big breakthrough in 2024 when you started your dispatches. What’s the outlook now in terms of the uptake of the malaria vaccine and the capacity for the same as well?
Poonawalla: We’re investing to build a capacity of around 100 million doses annually. Right now, it’s only about 25-30 million doses a year, because that’s what the countries in Africa can take. But as the funding gets into place and the countries get ready, from a programmatic point of view, to take the vaccines we’re seeing, we’re hoping to see a large uptake.
But what concerns me is the development of vaccines in India and our ability to innovate and make our vaccines, because we want to make them in India; we want to invest in India. But I’ll just share a sad fact: the entire vaccine industry, my company included, struggles to cross even a billion dollars worth of profits annually, and that’s nowhere near enough to be able to develop our vaccines and molecules.
For example, we’ve had to partner with others to get the dengue vaccine and the monkeypox vaccine; all of these will launch in the next one or two years. I think the government has to re-look at and relax some of the price controls that we have. We’re not talking about removing price controls because we want the public at large to be able to access affordable healthcare. But today, we’re selling vaccines at less than the price of roadside shoes and other consumables and commodities. So it needs to be relooked at, because only then can we make enough profits to reinvest and innovate and make our vaccines.
Q: Are you saying the profits that you’re making today aren’t enough for you to be able to invest in R&D?
Poonawalla: If you just look at some of the companies, Pfizer, GSK, and Sanofi, they make billions of dollars worth of profits. Each of these drugs and vaccines takes years to develop and hundreds of millions of dollars.
Take the malaria vaccine, for instance; it was all self-funded, but it took us five or six years. We could have done that much faster. As I said, the whole vaccine industry combined makes just a billion dollars worth of profits. You look at all the other industries in India; they’re flourishing. IT industry, the auto industry, and steel because they don’t have restrictions. If the biotech industry got what the IT industry got 10-15 years ago, every biotech company would make a billion a quarter, and that’s the kind of money and capital you need.
Q: But we’re talking about health care, about saving people’s lives. So, it has to be something that a common person can access.
Poonawalla: Absolutely. So when I re-look at it, I’m not talking about removing price controls. I’m talking about relaxing price controls. So, if we’re talking about a vaccine, which is being sold at ₹100 or ₹200, right now, the MRPs are being reduced, and someone needs to look at them instead of being increased by 10% or 20%, or 30%. And these are vaccines that, for example, protect you for say 10 years. Today, you buy a painkiller, or you buy any medicines, or you buy other consumables, or you spend on any sector that you look at in India. What is a few 100 rupees? We’re still talking about keeping it affordable. It’s just got to balance it out so that the industry can grow and also create more jobs and more investment. The partnership model works. But if you want to develop and make everything in India from scratch, you need that kind of capital to be able to do that.
Watch the video for more