Pharmaceutical translation

The pharmaceutical industry is a market that is growing globally. Professional translation in this area is therefore highly valued, as it contributes to the development and registration of new drugs on the international market.

Challenges that pharmaceutical translators tackle

Pharmaceutical industry language is full of complex specific terminology that includes a high proportion of technical terms. It is also important to remember that highly sensitive information is handled in this area. In addition, the content of pharmaceutical documents is related not only to the knowledge inherent in the industry, but also includes chemistry, biology and medicine-related information and concepts.

This means that pharmaceutical documents contain very precise information which, if incorrectly interpreted, translated or transcribed could entail significant risks to public health. Any organisation responsible for such errors would face very serious consequences.

Many of these texts need to be written according to strict formatting guidelines, such as the different parts of the CTD (Common Technical Document) - the internationally agreed regulatory dossier for preparing marketing applications for new medicines to regulatory authorities.

The important role of professional translators in the pharmaceutical industry

These are some examples of documents whose translation can be handled by a specialised translator or agency:

• Pharmacological manuals
• Articles for the trade press
• Certificates and medical records
• Leaflets and fact sheets
• Registration dossiers for medicinal products
• Pharmacological studies
• Laboratory reports
• Pharmaceutical and chemical patents
• Marketing and advertising of pharmaceutical products
• Pharmaceutical company websites

The peculiarities of pharmaceutical language make it impossible to rely on online machine translation tools for these projects and also require the translator to have higher education in pharmacy. This means it is inadvisable to delegate this work to a translation or interpreting graduate if they don't have the specific knowledge.

The best practice - a common practice among many companies in the sector - is to choose an international translator with the necessary knowledge and experience, who is up to date with the latest developments in medicine and health and who knows how to translate them into a quality pharmaceutical translation. In short, you need a translator like those who work with an agency such as sanscrit.