With Swine Flu confirmed as an official pandemic, the race is now on among drug companies to produce a Swine Flu vaccine.

GlaxoSmithKline said recently that it would be ready to begin large-scale vaccine production within a few weeks. Sanofi-Aventis also said recently that it had started working on its own version.

Meanwhile, Swiss pharma giant Novartis announced on Friday (June 12) that it had created an experimental vaccine that has not been tested in people. Novartis’ vaccine was reportedly made via a cell-based technology that may prove faster than the traditional way of making vaccines (i.e. through the use of chicken eggs).

The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that approximately 2.4 billion does of pandemic vaccine could be available in about a year.