A team of researchers at Indiana University released a study in the online journal Nature Chemical Biology about an injectable drug that could slim you down by 25% in just one week.

Richard DiMarchi, chairman of the chemistry department at Indiana University in Bloomington and the study's lead researcher said, "There's a global epidemic of obesity. Our focus is finding therapies to lower body weight and treat diabetes."

The study showed that two natural hormones combined into a single drug suppressed appetite and increased metabolism in rodents. A single injection of this drug decreased the rodent's body weight by 25 % and fat mass by 42% after one week.

"I'm excited. It is rodent work that's representative of human obesity," said DiMarchi. "What we're doing is using the proven ability of two hormones to stop appetite and use more calories."

The 'magic' drug in question happens to be the active ingredients in two FDA approved medications, Byetta, the diabetes drug and Glucagon, used to control blood sugar which would be combined and taken as a weekly injection.

In 2007 the weight loss pill Alli was launched but despite that obesity cures are usually surgical interventions like gastric bypass. But some experts are of the opinion that this new drug may mimic the action of that surgery and may be the next step in our understanding and handling obesity.

"We're beginning to understand the pharmacological mechanisms of obesity and all the different pathways," said Dr. Mitchell Roslin, Lenox Hill Hospital.

"This has potential," said Keith-Thomas Ayoob, associate professor in the department of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N. Y. "It's long been known that combination therapies can work well -- that is, multiple drugs at the same time to treat chronic illness, viruses, et cetera.

"With this paper, we see that a single drug is developed that acts in two different ways, which is a little different. It's like getting one drug to work in two distinct ways."

However as the drug is still years away from human trials, nothing will be known about the potential side effects of the drug combination. Experts remind of the enthusiasm that followed trials in 1995 of an appetite suppressing hormone known as leptin, which also showed weight-loss potential in mice. However human studies revealed no similar effect in humans.

Dr. Lou Aronne, weight-loss author and obesity expert said, "Remember, even though these are mice, the treatment is affecting two receptor systems that exist in humans," he said. "As with leptin, we need to see the human data first before we jump for joy," Aronne cautioned.

Ayoob said, "I see this as potential, but right now it's only potential," he said. Long-term success still needs to be demonstrated, and by long-term I mean we'd have to see results 18 to 24 months down the road. Weight loss is one thing; maintaining it is more difficult."