Children as young as six will get powerful slimming jabs in a new trial, MailOnline can reveal today. 

Weight loss injection semaglutide, branded as Ozempic and Wegovy, has already been rolled out for adults.

But health chiefs have, so far, held back from doling out the jabs to tackle Britain's bulging child obesity crisis. 

The two-and-a-half-year trial, sponsored by the jab's maker, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, could change that.

This is despite experts raising concerns about the potential effects of doling out the brain-hacking drugs to children.  




Drugs like Ozempic help people lose weight by mimicking a hormone that tricks them into feeling full 





Researchers outlined several unintended detrimental consequences that could arise in children who take weight-loss drugs

Slimming jabs have been linked to cancer, gallstones and suicidal thoughts, though exact long-term effects remain a mystery since they are relatively new. 

Officials also recommend they are taken for life, otherwise users may simply pile the pounds back on.

Critics have also said such a move, while tackling the problem of childhood obesity, fails to address the drivers which are making British children fat in the first place.

More than 200 children will be recruited as part of the global study, which will involve four NHS hospitals in Birmingham, Bristol, Glucoslim Stiftung Warentest Leeds and Liverpool.

One arm of the trial will consist of children aged between six and 12.