Exposé of global pharmaceutical industry to Canongate

Canongate has acquired an exposé of the modern global pharmaceutical industry, Sick Money, by Billy Kenber.

Editorial director at Canongate Simon Thorogood acquired world rights in the "timely, deeply-researched, hard-hitting" book, which explores inequities in drug development and the sale of medicine, from Heather Holden-Brown at HHB Agency.

Thorogood said Kenber's book was "destined to make headlines". In Sick Money, Kenber argues the way we fund drug research and pay for medicines is no longer working; unless we take action, we risk a dramatic decline in drug development and a future in which the latest therapies remain out of reach for all but the super-rich, explains the book's blurb.

Kenber is an investigative journalist at the Times, where he has worked since 2010, and has two prizes from the Medical Journalists’ Association including the 2017 award for Outstanding Contribution to Health or Medical Journalism. He said: “The cost of drugs has a profound impact on lives all over the globe and I’m delighted to be working with Canongate to delve deeper into one of the most important issues of our times."

Canongate will publish in hardcover in September 2020.