For now, the bio-reactors at Novartis’ newly opened the first flu vaccine plant in the USA are running empty and just for show, but it is the first to use cells rather than eggs for manufacturing flu vaccines.

The cell-based technology is not only more hygienic, faster and predictable than the process of using eggs for manufacturing flu vaccines, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on touring the plant, it will also assist in alleviating American dependence on imported vaccines.

The cells and virus are incubated in the bio-reactors, which scaling up should be able to manufacture larger quantities of the vaccine quickly whenever required, as in pandemics.

The facility will take some years before going into full scale production in 2013, and is of little use during the current H1N1 swine flu pandemic, which in the face of slow-arriving supplies has the government struggling to ensure all Americans are vaccinated.

As well, Novartis is also operating a cell culture flu vaccine plant in Marburg, Germany that manufactures vaccines for the European Union, Iceland and Norway.

According to the U. S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates, there are 22-million Americans already infected with the H1N1 flu, with at least 160-million it would like to have vaccinated. However, so far, just 50-million H1N1 vaccines have been distributed.

Novartis received $487-million from the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) as investment for helping it build the plant, it hopes will make the U. S. flu vaccine supply more reliable.

‘The total investment in the facility is nearly $1-billion, through a partnership between Novartis and HHS to support the design, construction, validation and licensing of the manufacturing facility in Holly Springs,’ the company said.

Novartis claims, when up and running its Holly Springs facility will be able to manufacture 50-million seasonal flu vaccine doses a year, and 150-million within 6-months of a pandemic being declared.

Due to uncertainty of flu vaccine supplies, HHS has contracted with Novartis, Sanofi Aventis, CSL, AstraZeneca unit MedImmune and GlaxoSmithKline for manufacturing influenza immunizations for the U. S. market.