A pump which could help breast cancer sufferers has been given the thumbs up by an academic study.

A group of academics led by Professor Steven Ley at Cambridge university’s chemistry department carried out research which indicates the innovative new V-3 pump system, designed by Bury St Edmunds-based Vapourtec, could help people living with or at risk of cancer.

It was used in a process that enables efficient and controlled production of breast cancer drug Tamoxifen using a flow chemistry process.

The firm’s founder and boss Duncan Guthrie said: “This could be one of our biggest breakthroughs to date.”

“Existing approaches for the production of Tamoxifen present a number of challenges. However, the V-3 provides an alternative, novel approach resulting from its ability to pump previously difficult to handle reagents based on its unique pumping ability,” he said.

Research team member Dr Duncan Browne said the pump had enabled it to expand previous flow chemical reactions into continuous processes that produce significant quantities of materials. Vapourtec applications specialist Andrew Mansfield described the paper as “very important”.