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Scientists have developed a new slimming pill that appears to trick the body into burning fat in a similar way as happens when we exercise.  The drug is many years away from being available to prescribe but it has successfully been tested on mice.  If the drug is confirmed as being safe enough to be tested on humans, it could herald a radical way to treat overweight and obese people.  At the moment, the only medications available to prescribe for patients who are overweight are either lipase inhibitors, which partially prevent the absorption of fats by the body, or drugs which influence appetite by a variety of means.

The drug has been developed by Dr Ronald Evans who has spent many years studying obesity, its causes and its consequences.  The active ingredient in the drug is a synthetic form of fat which appears to work by flicking a master switch within the cells which regulates the laying down or burning of fat.

Previous studies by Dr Evans have focussed on genetic engineering to create a strain of mice that is entirely resistant to weight gain and has a physical endurance twice that of ordinary mice.  As the genetic engineering of the mice had to take place pre-birth, there was no prospect of this having any direct human application as such genetic modification would not be acceptable.  This new discovery, which involves chemical metabolic engineering, is a very exiting development which could eventually revolutionise the lives of millions of people by reducing fatty tissue, lowering blood lipid levels, cutting blood glucose levels and reducing resistance to insulin, thus limiting the risks of heart disease and diabetes.