The government grant means if the company's new insect-cell technology proves to be safe and effective, Protein Sciences will have to increase its manufacturing capability to provide a finished vaccine within 12 weeks of pandemic onset and would also have to produce at least 50 million doses of flu vaccine within six months of pandemic onset.

Adams says that should not be a problem because manufacturing a vaccine using insect cells can be easily and rapidly scaled up because it does not require the same specialized factories required to produce vaccine using egg or mammalian cells.

With emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the new vaccine could be immediately available.

Swiss company Novartis, which was also awarded a U.S. government to the tune of $289 million to develop a vaccine against (A)H1N1 flu, announced two weeks ago that it was on the brink of beginning pre-clinical trials - tests in vitro and on animals - on its first batch of swine flu vaccine.

French company Sanofi-Pasteur also hopes to have doses of swine flu vaccine ready for clinical trials within weeks - Taiwan's Adimmune Corporation says it expects to complete clinical trials on its A(H1N1) influenza vaccine around September.

The award of the contract to the Protein Sciences Corporation caused a certain amount of concern because the company was reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy and liquidation, with creditors claiming they were owed $11.7 million.

Critics have questioned the government's judgment in entrusting such vital research to a financially strapped company but officials say thorough financial audits of Protein Sciences were carried out before the grant was awarded.