A new Novartis AG vaccine plant in North Carolina is supposed to boost the U.S.’s ability to fight pandemics like the current swine-flu virus. But despite a ribbon-cutting Tuesday, it won’t be pumping out flu shots for at least another two years.
Nor will the plant’s cutting-edge technology do much to solve one of the biggest problems vaccine makers have faced in churning out this year’s swine-flu vaccine: a slow-growing virus. High-speed techniques that bypass the lengthy and onerous process of incubating viruses to make vaccine are years away.