Being attacked by a hippopotamus is not a common hazard in the world of drug discovery – unless your employer’s business model is the discovery and development of cancer drugs from marine creatures.

Researchers from Madrid-based PharmaMar were forced to swim for their lives after an angry hippo ambushed them while they were hunting for promising material near a mangrove swamp on the East Africa coast. It sank their boat and with it all their equipment and samples.