The translation and localization industry’s growth continues its climb well in 2014, staying ahead of the global economic growth forecasts at a rate of 5%. Much of this development can be attributed to the need for businesses to engage emerging local markets. Here at Morningside, we find these trends corroborated by the evolving nature of project requests.

Increasingly the BRIC countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, and China, are asserting themselves as pivotal players in today’s global economy. This geographic shift in economic activity has led to heavier involvement in international legal disputes and, consequently, a larger need for the translation industry. Matters relating to the FCPA, or Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, have increasingly called upon LSPs for translations of documents from newspaper articles to email exchanges. Intellectual Property matters in particular have felt the effects of this power shift. Brazil, Russia, Japan and China have become standard foreign filing destinations. Additionally, Korea, Mexico, Indonesia, and Ukraine are experiencing surges in patent prosecution.

Continuing beyond the BRIC, countries such as South Korea and Indonesia are beginning to challenge traditional leaders in manufacturing such as Japan and Germany. Increases in global competition have spilled over into the courtrooms, driving demands for legal translations and interpretations up.

Southeast Asia is more commonly featured as the backdrop to medical and pharmaceutical industry expansion. As more clinical trials are conducted abroad, the need for accurate, technical translations rises with it. Just last month, Morningside participated in the 2014 Drug Information Association (DIA) Conference in San Diego in response to our increased involvement in medical translations for clinical trials and regulatory work.

Domestically, the Department of Justice has pursued many White Collar and Antitrust cases which can involve multiple languages—most commonly Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Antitrust cases in particular are responsible for a large portion of the rising demand for qualified interpreters.

Morningside continues to stay abreast of these global activities by engaging new verticals and expanding language coverage to match shifting trends. We have increased our presence in the medical field and continue to expand our partnerships in the legal industry. Furthermore, in response to shifting language trends, Morningside has increased coverage of language combinations such as Indonesian and Japanese in order to meet evolving needs.

The BIO International Convention takes place next week in Washington, DC and Morningside will be attending (our 4th year in a row). We thought it would be timely to provide an overview on how medical translations are used by biotech companies. The need for translations can come up throughout a product’s life cycle–from R&D, to clinical trial,  regulatory submission, manufacturing, and finally sales and marketing. Let’s take a closer look at the role translation services play at each stage.

R&D – During research and development, it’s often necessary to read and understand relevant foreign language documents including papers,  patents, reports, and scientific publications. German and Japanese documents come up most frequently. Tip: The translator should have a solid background in the particular technical field at issue. Industry experience is helpful, but not essential.

Clinical trial stage – At any given time, more than 300 clinical trials are taking place, often in multiple countries. Case report forms, informed consents, patient-reported outcomes, and other documents have to be translated to and from multiple languages. Full linguistic validation including cognitive debriefing of translated PROs may also be needed. Tip: For linguistic validation, it’s important to work with a translation company, like Morningside, that relies on the well-structured methodologies outlined by ISPOR and EORTC.

Regulatory submissions – Biotech companies who want to get their product approved in global markets need to submit dossiers, labeling, adverse events, and other documents to the regulatory authorities in the local or official languages. In addition to the EU and Japan, BRICs countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), Latin America, and other emerging markets have  become increasingly important, and that means translating regulatory documents into Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Latin American Spanish, and other languages. Tip: Regulatory translations require specific knowledge of the country’s dossier format and terminology requirements. In-country translation and review is a must.

Manufacturing – Biotech companies that design or manufacture products oversees need to translate health and safety manuals as well as SOPs into the local language where their facilities are located. Tip: Translated manuals must conform to local labor laws, safety regulations, customs, and cultural sensitivities.

Sales & marketing – To effectively market biotech products oversees, companies need to think locally. Product websites, brochures, and promotional materials need to be translated and localized, keeping in mind cultural sensitivities and local health issues and concerns. And local dialect. Tip: When translating into Spanish, there are important regional variations, even within Latin America. Mexican Spanish and Rioplatense Spanish spoken in parts of Argentina and Uruguay are quite different.

We’ll have more to say about translating for the biotech industry and medical translations in general, including localization advice and tips for lowering translation costs.