Five biopharmaceutical companies have been awarded massive contracts by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for development and production of more than 195 million doses of swine flu vaccine.

The companies -- Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, MedImmune, Australian drug maker CSL, and Sanofi-Pasteur -- will likely make a great deal of money.

CSL has contracts to supply $180 million worth of bulk antigen to the U.S.  MedImmune will supply 40 million doses of its live attenuated nasal spray swine flu vaccine for more than $450 million. Sanofi-Pasteur is providing more than  100 million doses of monovalent swine flu vaccine, a $690 million order.