Adar Poonawalla
John Nkengasong
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Adar Poonawalla
CEO
Serum Institute of India Adar Poonawalla is the CEO of the Serum Institute of India , one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world .
In 2021 he helped supply half a billion doses of Covishield , the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine , to both people in India and overseas . This effort , which was crucial to India ' s vaccination programme , won him several awards including Entrepreneur of the Year by Economic Times . Poonawalla is also a board member of GAVI , the global vaccine alliance .
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John Nkengasong
Founding Director
Africa CDC
John Nkengasong is the founding director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention ( Africa CDC ). A leading virologist with nearly 30 years of work experience in public health , throughout the COVID-19 pandemic he has been an advocate for equitable access to vaccines , leading the director-general of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to call him a " modern day African hero .”
As the WHO ' s Special Envoy for Africa during the pandemic , he has worked to improve testing and create a more transparent approach to sharing COVID-19 data by all African nations .
114 December 2021