AN AMAZING new drug that protects fair-skinned people against skin cancer is set for launch next year.
The implant mimics the body’s natural defences and makes patients look tanned.

Aussie company Clinuvel has spent 15 years developing Afamelanotide.

The drug — kept secret until now — is entering the final phase of medical trials and could be licensed by UK regulators by next summer.

It will first be used to help Brits with a rare sunlight allergy that condemns them to a life indoors. There is no cure for cutaneous porphyria, but the new drug offers hope.

Afamelanotide is then likely to be prescribed to skin cancer patients at risk of developing the disease again.

The drug harnesses the chemical melanin, which protects against harmful UV rays.

Implants injected into the hip trigger a change in skin pigmentation lasting two months.

Doctors are likely to use the drug as a preventative measure for people at risk of skin cancer, which hits 70,000 Brits each year.

Medics stress that it is NOT intended for sun-worshippers hoping to deepen their tans.

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