Jaap Goudsmit, chief scientific officer for Netherlands-based Crucell, which supplies cell-culture technology, expects to test the first cell-based avian-flu vaccine as early as next spring.

More than half of the $7.1 billion that President Bush wants to spend preparing for a flu pandemic is dedicated to finding better ways to make antiviral drugs and vaccines, an investment that scientists say is long overdue. Flu vaccines were being grown in chicken eggs more than 50 years…