Acambis, the UK biotech group which makes smallpox vaccines to prepare governments around the world against terrorist attack, said yesterday it hoped to develop a Sars jab.

Chief executive Dr John Brown confirmed the Cambridge-based group was keen to work on a vaccine to tackle the global epidemic.

The company was recently invited to a meeting in Washington DC at which US Health Secretary Tommy Thompson called for companies to work on a vaccine.

Dr Brown said: "We are looking very closely at it. We were invited to a meeting in Washington by Secretary Thompson where they were talking about the desire to get companies working on a Sars vaccine."

He added that viral infections were one of its key areas of expertise.

The group also said yesterday that a total of 11 countries had now placed orders for its smallpox vaccine.

Acambis, which already has an order for 209 million doses of its key vaccine from the the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said yesterday it had signed contracts with a further ten governments, including six in Europe.

Reporting the company's results for the three months to March 31, chairman Alan Smith said the group was also in talks with several other governments and organisations over potential smallpox contracts.

The US deal enabled the company to post first quarter pre-tax profits of £9.5 million compared to losses of £2.8 million last year.

Shares lifted three per cent or 8.5p to 295p on the news which builds on the company's first full-year profit - of £9.6 million - reported in March.

Mr Smith said that Acambis remained on course to deliver 155 million doses of the smallpox vaccine to the US CDC in the first half of the year.

Although the stockpiles are being built up already, the drug is still in the process of being tested.