BASEL, Switzerland (AP) - Swiss pharmaceuticals maker Novartis has opened a plant in North Carolina to make flu vaccines using cell cultures instead of egg-based methods.
The new site in Holly Springs is unlikely to be in time to make vaccines for the current swine flu pandemic, but will be active from 2011.
Total investment in the company's first American facility is nearly $1 billion. Novartis was given a $487 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Companies are trying to find a more efficient way to produce vaccine than the slow method of cultivating seed virus in chicken eggs.
Novartis says when the plant is in full operation it will be able to supply 150 million doses of pandemic flu vaccine six months after a pandemic is declared.
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