London, Sep 17 - In what was described as a global first, American pharmaceutical giant Merck and Britain's largest charity, Wellcome Trust Thursday announced the formation of an India-based nonprofit company that will produce cheap vaccines for the developing world.

Hilleman Laboratories will be headed by Indian-origin medical scientist Altaf A. Lal, who currently works at the US embassy in India looking after health.

Based in Hyderabad, the first vaccine the new company will develop is against Group A streptococci, which affects 18 million people, mostly in the developing world and kills half a million people a year, Wellcome Trust director Mark Walport said.

A 2004 Indian study estimated that Group A streptococci, which causes rheumatic fever and disability, could affect up to half a million people in India every year.