Bluebird pre-empts 'groundbreaking' guide to prescription medicines from Nick Barber

Bluebird has made a "significant" pre-empt for a "groundbreaking" title on taking medicine by pharmacological researcher Professor Nick Barber, aimed at giving patients more agency with their prescriptions.

Associate publisher Jodie Lancet-Grant bought world rights to Barber’s How to Take Drugs: A New Approach to Medication for Better Results and Fewer Side Effects from Ben Clark at The Soho Agency. In the title, Barber, a University College, London emeritus professor, will set out "what patients need to know when being prescribed any medication, and how to advocate for themselves in order to obtain—and assess—the most effective remedy for their particular condition and individual circumstances".

Barber called How to Take Drugs "the culminatinon of my life’s work". He added: "We are in a mess with medicines. Pharma is a $1.3 trillion industry... [and many medicines] don’t work well, are badly prescribed, erratically taken, barely monitored and cause immense stress, harm and waste."

The book takes an international approach to the problem, with a particular focus on the US, which accounts for fully half of the global medication market, and where patients pay for their treatment themselves—albeit usually via insurance.

Barber added: "The time is right for patients to have more agency over their relationship with medicines. I am keen to help them, and drive change in national policies as well."

Lancet-Grant said: "The issues that [Barber] describes are universal. It’s clear that we need an entirely new approach to taking medicine, and, as one of the world’s most experienced experts, he is perfectly placed to provide it. How to Take Drugs will be of great practical use to the individual, but also sets out a revolutionary vision for the future of prescriptions, medicine, and, ultimately, all of our health."