Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd (GBL), a biotech company in Pune and a subsidiary of Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd has tied up with PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) for a dedicated malaria vaccine manufacturing facility at Hinjewadi. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will inaugurate the malaria vaccine manufacturing facility and oncology plant on Saturday. GBL has invested $ 6.5 million in setting up this plant, Samit Mehta, vice president, Surgical Alliances, Emcure pharmaceuticals said. PATH MVI is a vaccine development program created through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and under the GBL-MVI agreement, MVI will provide partial financial support to GBL to establish a cGMP compliant manufacturing facility which would be equipped to produce recombinant protein-based malaria vaccine candidates. Dr. Sanjay Singh, CEO, Gennova Biopharmaceuticals said, "The funding was based on the scientific and business synergies that exist between the two organisations." MVI is providing financial support for the first time to equip a dedicated recombinant protein manufacturing facility to produce cGMP grade malaria vaccine candidates for use in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials. Dr. Christian Loucq, director, PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative will also be present at the function. A K Khanna, chief operating officer, Emcure said that GBL has created a consortium through which, the US National Institutes of Health will conduct laboratory animal trials for testing the efficacy of the vaccine candidates produced at GBL. The National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), India will conduct epidemiological studies using human sera from malarial endemic regions in India. NIMR will also conduct Phase I and II human clinical trials for the selected vaccine candidates at its well-established clinical trial centres.Malaria kills one child every 30 seconds and is a major health problem in India, sub-Saharan Africa, and other parts of the world. A malaria vaccine would be an important tool in the fight against malaria.