The pharmaceutical industry has to deal with a business that targets a global audience. Also, it has become a patient-centric business and when the business revolves around the patients, overcoming the language barriers becomes extremely crucial. The needs and preferences of patients have become significant while working on new medicines and drugs for effective treatment. Moreover, addressing language barriers is also important to facilitate the patients with a better and healthier lifestyle. The pharma translation is not all about the translation of labels, it rather goes beyond these textual labels.
The pharmaceutical translation services often get tough and challenging for the businesses as well as the translators. It is important to be aware of the challenges that translators have to face while translating pharmaceutical content for a diverse audience. They can only cater to these challenges when they are aware of important factors in advance. Translating for a diverse audience can be a serious deal.
A few of these are mentioned below.
Cultural nuances
Medical and pharmaceutical translation comes with a lot of responsibilities and challenges. The translation needs to be culturally appropriate and relevant. It should not include any fact, information, or word that can offend the target masses. For this, it is imperative that translators are native speakers and are also aware of the cultural practices of the target audiences. Their beliefs about the illness and treatment can vary. The world is full of strange facts and many people in many cultures have their beliefs about certain diseases and the way they can get recovered. However, not every translator is well aware of all these facts and it gets challenging for them to ace through the translation. They should ensure that they go through all the content duly to resonate with the target audience in a better way.
Health literacy levels
Health literacy may vary with the region. Patients have different levels of education and medical knowledge. Translating all the content and educational material gets tough and challenging to deal with and the translators also often get overwhelmed. Therefore, the translators must be aware of these challenges and have relevant training to deal with them while translating the content. The document translation for a diverse audience demands clear, concise, and precise language that should also avoid overly technical jargon.
Visual representations
Another important pitfall of pharmaceutical translation that requires consideration is the use of visual representations. The pharma products, tablets, and drugs come with a certain packing. It can have different images and diagrams which are not appropriate for every culture. It is important that these visuals are culturally appropriate and people can easily understand them. Also, there are different visuals that are acceptable in different cultures and these require an acceptance accordingly. Hence it is significant to make the visual representations according to the culture which gets testing for the translators but some research in advance can help with this.
Technical terminology
We all are well aware of the fact that medical and pharmaceutical terminology is tough and complicated. Most of it comprises short forms and complex abbreviations that are barely comprehensible by a layman. Even experienced translators also get confused about keeping track of complex terms, drug names, and dosage instructions. In-depth information is required to translate the pharmacology. Moreover, a meticulous approach can also help with better and more accurate translation without missing anything. However, due to the challenging nature of the text, the translators often get stuck and they must prepare themselves beforehand.
Risk perception
The risk perception also turns out to be catastrophic in pharma translation, which is why it is important to only work with a professional medical translation company. The way people perceive risks related to their medications can vary with different cultures. The translated material hence needs to communicate the potential side effects to the people involved in a way that target audiences can resonate with these better. However, the situation also gets challenging making translators stumble on the content making it a challenging factor.
Stringent regulations
The pharmaceutical industry has a complex web of international regulations. Every region has defined its rules and regulations which new companies and businesses have to adhere to for a smooth business expansion. This niche revolves around strict regulations. Moreover, translated documents which include packaging inserts, labels, and clinical trial material need to adhere to these regulations and this only becomes possible when everyone understands it in their native language. However, due to legal jargon and complex terminology, translators often fail to connect to the same page; however, experienced medical translators can surely excel in this regard.
Conclusion
The pharmaceutical translation is challenging and demands professionals to nail the translation. This text contains complex content and can be challenging for the translation company to translate smoothly. Hence, to cope with these challenges translators and LSPs should ensure they are aware of the content in advance and cater to these accordingly. A few of the challenges include cultural nuances, health literacy levels, visual representations, technical terminology, and risk perception.
