On Jan. 15, 2009, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded Novartis a $487 million contract to help build a plant in North Carolina capable of producing 150 million doses of cell-based pandemic influenza vaccine within 6 months after the start of a pandemic.

Because of the advantages of growing flu vaccines in cell culture instead of in chicken eggs, the conventional method, the Novartis facility is expected to increase the US capacity to make pandemic flu vaccine by 25%,