A drug injection that attacks the blood supply to fat cells in the body, could help obese people shed 40% of their body fat in just a month.

Researchers carried out trial runs of the new weight-loss jab called Adipotide on overweight monkeys and discovered that daily injections of the drug led to the animals losing 11% of their body weight in just four weeks.

Although two prescription weight-loss drugs (that work on the brain) have already been banned in the UK, scientists feel confident that Adipotide is safe, as it works on the body rather than the brain.

In the UK, 60.8% of children and 31.1 of children are overweight, with a quarter of adults classed as clinically obese. With 30,000 weight-related deaths a year, scientists are hoping that the latest weight wonder drug will be the key to beating obesity.

The research, published in the Science Translational Medicine journal, noted that the drug caused a few kidney problems but health experts believe that these can be overcome. Further tests on Adipotide are being planned and if it's deemed safe, it could soon be widely prescribed to obese people.

"Obesity is a major risk factor for developing cancer, roughly the equivalent of tobacco use," says Dr. Wadih Arap from the study.

"Obese cancer patients do worse in surgery, with radiation or chemotherapy - worse by any measure."

"Development of this compound for human use would provide a non-surgical way to actually reduce accumulated white fat, in contrast to current weight-loss drugs that attempt to control appetite or prevent absorption of dietary fat," adds US researcher
Prof Renata Pasqualini, from the study.

Looking forward, researchers also hope that it could prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and reduce the risk of cancer.