H1N1 vaccine, a tiny biotechnology firm, is turning the shortage into an opportunity. It says it will soon start clinical trials of its experimental vaccine for the 2009 H1N1 influenza in Mexico.

• Any other year, Novavax’s effort would have seemed like a long shot. Its vaccine is genetically engineered and produced in insect cells — pretty different from producing shots in chicken eggs, as most vaccine makers now do. Regulators might have wanted more proof that the method could work. The  Mexican authorities are letting Novavax go ahead with a trial against the new H1N1 strain in 3,000 people with the aim of selling the shots in Mexico in 2010.