Language Insight has unveiled its latest industry-specific language service; medicine and pharmaceuticals translation. Patents, promotional campaigns and user guidelines are among the texts we can translate.

As one of the largest industries in the world and with a supply chain that spans the planet, the pharmaceuticals and medicine sector must ensure language services are at its heart so it can communicate effectively. Away from production, translation is also a vital service in the marketing of pharmaceutical products, particularly if there is a global consumer base.

Research by the World Health Organization reveals that as much as one-third of the total sales enjoyed by the industry are invested back into marketing. This shows just how valuable advertising is to this sector – and for the marketing message to get lost in translation when this much has been invested in it would be bad news indeed.

However, without high quality translation services it is not hard for an advertisement to fail to connect with its audience. It is easy for this to happen in the medicine and pharmaceuticals sector in particular, because the terminology is so technical. That’s why as well as hiring a translator who speaks its target language, a medical firm should also select someone with knowledge of their industry who will know the correct way to translate this terminology.

Language Insight has been producing medical translations for years and so has built up a large network of trusted translators with knowledge of the industry. This means we can rely on them to fully grasp the content of complex pharmaceutical and medical texts and translate them in the correct way.

This is vital as the consequences of publishing an inaccurate pharmaceutical translation could be significant. A mistake made in the dosage instructions of a product, or the allergy warnings, could result in adverse health problems for the consumer – or worse. Alternatively, clinical research that has not been translated correctly may be misleading and result in the product development being held up, while a mistranslation of an advert might mean a pharmaceuticals company loses out on a substantial consumer base.

One pharmaceuticals company that knows the dangers of mistranslating its advertising strategy is Samarin, a Swedish manufacturer of an antacid product. Ironically, its marketing campaign was something that should have worked well in all languages with no translation at all, as it was a cartoon strip with no text. The cartoon consisted of three panels, starting with a man looking ill, then showing him drinking some Samarin and in the third looking better. Unfortunately, in countries where they read from right to left, rather than left to right, it looked as though the man was feeling fine until he took the medicine, and afterwards he felt ill. So, while the idea seemed good on paper, in practice it failed in some consumer territories because of the lack of quality translation services.

Language Insight assigns its medical and pharmaceutical texts to the translator who not only speaks the target language, but who is also knowledgeable about the industry. Once complete, the translation will undergo a thorough quality check during which everything from spelling and sentence structure to typography will be assured. The finished translation will be one that makes sense in the target language, that does not miss out any important information and that is trustworthy and reliable.

Find out more about Language Insight’s pharmaceutical and medicine translation services, or contact us for a quote.