We examined the carbohydrate’s function," says Ali Salanti from the Faculty of Medical Health and Science at the University of Copenhagen. "In the placenta, it helps ensure fast growth. Our experiments showed that it was the same in cancer tumors. We combined the malaria parasite with cancer cells and the parasite reacted to the cancer cells as if they were a placenta and attached itself."

?Salanti collaborated with scientists from Canada's University of British Columbia as part of the research and the two groups proceeded to test thousands of samples of cancer. The results indicated that the malaria protein will attack more than 90 percent of all tumor types.

The technique was observed in both cell cultures and in mice. The researchers found that in mice with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the tumors of treated mice shrunk to about a quarter the size of those that went untreated. Tumors also disappeared in two of six mice with prostate cancer one month after their first dose. Five out of six treated mice with metastatic bone cancer were alive after almost eight weeks, while none of the control group survived.

Armed with its promising results, the researchers are now eyeing human trials, which they say are at least four years away. The approach would be unsuitable for pregnant women, however, because if administered the protein would attach itself to the placenta as normal and the toxin would kill it, in much the same way it mistakes the tumor for the placenta in other subjects.

Eoin Treacy's view

Something that is easy to forget among wild swings is that short-term gyrations in share prices have little effect on the pace of technological innovation. There is definitely a linkage between easy money and funding for adventurous new programs over the medium-term but that has generally meant closer due diligence rather than acting to retard discoveries not least because even in a downturn the best programs around acquired by stronger companies. Bristol Myer Squibb benefitted enormously from doing just that following the bust in the late 1990s.  

Healthcare is an incredibly exciting sector because it holds the potential to change the long-term productive capacity of the global economy. This does not mean it is immune to periods of over and under excitement but the pace of innovation means it is difficult to be pessimistic about the ability of humanity to solve some of our more intransigent scientific problems. 

The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index had priced in a great deal of good news when it hit a medium-term peak in July and continues to separate the wheat from the chaff in this corrective phase. It was among a small number of indices to make a new low September and has so far failed to rally significantly. It will need to hold the 3000 level to demonstrate a return to demand dominance but the loss of medium-term uptrend consistency means a potentially lengthy period of support building will be required before a move to news can be sustained.