Pharmaceutical translation is a branch of translation that is considered the most important. Do you know why? In any other kind of translation, a mistake may lead to a misprint, financial loss, etc. However, a mistake made by a pharmaceutical translation service provider may lead to irreversible consequences such as injury or death. So in the simplest terms, pharmaceutical translation impacts lives.
The service providers not only should know about the latest technology, but they also must have several layers of quality control in order to deliver pharmaceutical translations with 100% accuracy. People from all over the world rely on pharmaceutical translation services for several purposes. Moreover, it is an industry where every country has different regulations in place. This makes the translation process even harder for pharmaceutical translators. Are you wondering who are the users of pharmaceutical translation? That’s what we have discussed in the next part of this blog.
Who are the consumers of pharmaceutical translation?
The pharmaceutical translation is mainly for two groups of people.
- Professionals
- Patients
Professionals rely on pharmaceutical translation for research, patent documents, summaries of product characteristics, and more. Patients, on the other hand, require pharmaceutical translation to get information related to products. So apart from being accurate, the pharmaceutical translation must be consistent in terms of content and terminology.
What are the documents that are translated by pharmaceutical translators?
What most people think about the pharmaceutical industry is that it is all about drug trials, patents, or something similar to them. They are certainly a part of the pharmaceutical industry. However, there are many more types of documents and texts that are part of the pharmaceutical industry. Such documents include:
- Informed consent forms
- Packaging text
- Instructions
- Case reports
- Label text
- Training documents
- Brochures
- Synopses
In order to translate these pharmaceutical documents, the translators stay up to date with the drug regulations of the country of origin as well as the target country. For instance, Japan, China, Europe, and United States have extremely different rules and regulations for marketing as well as manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.
Why knowledge of local regulations is vital for pharmaceutical translator
Most of the research and drug trials are done on an international level. For instance, in the United States, less than one-third of oncology tests are done in the country. Violation of local regulations may result in huge losses for pharmaceutical companies. For this reason, pharmaceutical translation service providers have to keep both countries’ regulations in mind.
Pharmaceutical translation services are not confined to studies or research. So there are directive as well as regulatory compliance requirements that dictate what should be made available to the users of a particular country.
The translation is required at several stages throughout the process of research, testing, patenting, and marketing. Apart from the accuracy in several languages, pharmaceutical translation is often time-sensitive. Why so?
- Many companies are competing for the same drug.
- Translation delays can cause backlogs, rejection, and even lawsuits in some cases.
- This results in losses in time, money, and human health as well as welfare.
In a nutshell
Accuracy and timeliness are of utmost importance when it comes to pharmaceutical translation. The best translation company should have translators knowing the terms and nuances of the pharmaceutical industry. The only aim of the pharmaceutical industry translation is to provide accurate, clear, understandable, and culturally as well as regionally relevant translation of the text into the target language. The result of anything less can be hazardous.
