Emcure sets up oncology drugs facility

Pune: Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd has announced the launch of its new oncology plant and the Gennova Biopharmaceuticals’ malaria vaccine facility at Hinjewadi in Pune.

Mr Satish Mehta, CEO, said the company has invested nearly $25 million to set up the 70,000 sq ft oncology formulations facility, which is based on the latest isolation technology to ensure worker safety.

The facility would become fully operational by November and is expected to generate Rs 100-200 crore revenue by the end of the next calendar year, he said. The facility would cater to domestic as well as regulated markets, he said, adding that ten products would be launched this year of which six were not manufactured in the country. Eight products are ready for launch, he said.

The oncology market in India is estimated at Rs 400 crore and growing 30 per cent annually. Emcure seeks to capture 15-20 per cent market share within the next five years, Mr Mehta said.

Mr Arun Khanna, COO, said patients in India had limited access to the latest cancer therapy; Emcure would offer a vertically integrated solution for cytotoxic drug substance and drug product manufactured at its facilities. The manufacturing capacity of the plant ranged from 500 grams to batches of 25 kg, he said.

Quoting statistics, he said there are 2.5 million cancer cases in India, with about 7 lakh (estimated) cancer patients added each year. Of these, 3 lakh cases were tobacco related and about 3.5 lakh cancer patients die each year.

Malaria vaccine

Mr Mehta said Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd has collaborated with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) to set up a malaria vaccine manufacturing facility. PATH MVI is a vaccine development programme with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The malarial facility would be set up with an investment of $6 million and would conduct clinical trials. MVI is providing financial support to establish a dedicated recombinant protein manufacturing facility to produce cGMP-grade malaria vaccine candidates for use in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials.

Gennova Biopharmaceuticals has set up a consortium through which the US National Institutes of Health would conduct laboratory animal trials for the vaccine candidates. The National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR) 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 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,” Mr Mehta said.

Mr Mukund Gurjar, Chief Scientific Officer, said new areas of work would include steroids, hormones and peptides.