GlaxoSmithKline plc, Europe's biggest drugmaker, said on Wednesday that it was accelerating work on a possible vaccine against the deadly SARS virus but warned development would take years.
Chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier said his company had pledged to work alongside other vaccine firms during a recent meeting with US government health officials.
"We committed to accelerate our development of a possible vaccine for SARS," Garnier told reporters in a conference call, after announcing the group's first-quarter results.
"I want to warn you that it takes time to develop a vaccine, even with the best intention and all the resources at our disposal. This is not a matter of weeks or months, it is a matter of years.
"Clearly it is better to start now because this infection might come back, even if it is contained in the short term."
GSK is working on the project to contain the respiratory disease, which has killed hundreds of people and infected thousands of others around the world, at its vaccine development centre in Belgium.
