GlaxoSmithKline gets green light for $91M vaccine facility

As part of an ambitious effort to prep for a future pandemic, GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) and Texas A&M are teaming up to build a $91 million flu vaccine manufacturing center in the Lone Star state that will rely on cell-culture lines rather than chicken eggs. One of only three such centers planned for the U.S., it's designed to be able to produce up to 50 million doses of a pandemic flu vaccine within four months of an outbreak. That's much faster than the old tech in use today. With typical Texan braggadocio, Governor Rick Perry said that the center would add $41 billion in new spending over 25 years while producing 6,800 direct and indirect jobs. Such figures rarely prove accurate, but who's counting in a slowpoke economy? Release