The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded Novartis an order of up to $220 million to develop a cell culture-derived influenza vaccine, the Swiss drugmaker said on Thursday.

Any successful cell culture-derived vaccine would supply seasonal influenza vaccine to the United States and enable the country to respond rapidly in the event of an influenza pandemic, Novartis said in a statement.

“We will be investing additional resources in highly skilled researchers to set up one of the first flu cell culture manufacturing sites in the United States,” Novartis Chief Executive Daniel Vasella said in a statement.

The order was part of a larger initiative by the U.S. health department aiming to be capable of producing 600 million doses of pandemic influenza vaccine within six months of the declaration of a pandemic, with a projected 150 million doses coming from a planned Novartis U.S. facility.

The U.S. ministry would commit up to $220 million over five years to support product development as well as the design of a facility and equipment. Novartis plans to invest additional resources, the group said.

The antigen, the active component in flu vaccines, is currently made using chicken eggs, a laborious process that limits manufacturers’ ability to scale up production.

Cultivating antigen in stainless steel vats of cell culture is widely seen as the way of the future, although experts say it will take several years to develop and test the technology.

Novartis said it has started an early-stage phase I/II study of a cell culture-derived influenza vaccine.

Influenza is a virus-induced respiratory illness estimated to kill 250,000 to 500,00 people across the world each year.