As Serum Institute of India's Adar Poonawalla celebrated his birthday on Thursday, his wife Natasha wished him "a little more sleep" after months of work on the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine produced by their company.
Visuals of the Serum Institute CEO celebrating his 40th birthday were shared by Natasha Poonawalla, who is the company's Executive Director, in a post that was a shout-out to her husband's "relentless hard work".
Mr Poonawalla is seen in the photo cutting a cake, flanked by his children, wife and other relatives.
"Happy birthday to this powerhouse, and my rock Adar Poonawalla, taking a moment to celebrate, after what's been a tough few months of sleepless nights and relentless hard work. Here's to many more milestones, and hopefully a little more sleep," wrote Ms Poonawalla in her post.
Actor Sonam Kapoor also wished Mr Poonawalla, calling him "the guy who is about to save the world," in an Instagram post.
The Covishield vaccine rolled out on Tuesday from SII's Pune facility. 56.5 lakh doses of Covishield were flown earlier this week to various cities including Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Kolkata, Guwahati and Patna.
Adar Poonawalla tweeted photos of the Serum team, calling it an "emotional moment" after the first shipment rolled out.
The government plans to buy a total of 5.60 crore doses of Covishield vaccine by April 2021, at Rs 200 per dose. While 1.10 crore doses of the vaccine were purchased on Monday, there is a "commitment" to purchase another 4.50 crore doses by April 2021.
India begins the first phase of mass vaccination, one of the largest in the world, on Saturday.
