For bird flu, time is of the essence.

Byline: Penni Crabtree

Nov. 11--While the Bush administration's $7.1 billion plan to deal with the threat of an avian flu outbreak is largely focused on the production and stockpiling of traditional vaccines, the grim logistics of a potential pandemic provide an opportunity for drug companies with more novel approaches.

One of the biggest flu challenges facing world health leaders is time.

If a pandemic were to emerge in the next year, it would take months before full-scale global vaccine production could begin using conventional methods of making vaccines in eggs, according to some studies.

Even then, the world's flu vaccine plants can produce only about 450 million shots over six months -- which would protect less than 10 percent of the world's population.

With that in mind, the U.S. government is funding research at some biotechnology companies, including San Diego's Vical, to explore new kinds of vaccines that might treat or prevent the H5N1 "bird flu," the most dangerous strain of…