DENVER -- The race to find a flu vaccine effective against the H1N1 virus is on with one company claiming it can beat the typical 6 month delay.

Novavax Inc, a clinical stage biotechnology company based in Rockville, Md. has been working on a swine flu vaccine for a week now.

The company president said they can go from a DNA profile, which they already have, to a vaccine in three months.

"We have been working on this for three to four years, so we feel very confident that this new genetic sequence for the swine flu is something that we can also use to create virus-like particle vaccine candidates," said Dr. Rahul Singhvi, President and CEO of Novovax.

Reached on his cell phone late Friday afternoon, Sighvi expressed confidence that past experience with avian and flu vaccine clinical trials could help his scientists find a way to slow the spread of the virus.

According to the company web site, Novavax uses a virus-like particle technology to create something similar to the flu virus that attaches to cells and triggers the body's immune system to fight back.

This system, Singhvi said, does not use a live virus and should not lead to potentially harmful side effects, as were widely reported with the last swine flu vaccine given to Americans in 1976.

The Centers for Disease Control has said it typically takes six months to develop a flu shot. The current version of that shot, taken by many this fall, in not effective against H1N1.