With the ever-growing globalization of the biotech industry, most companies have discovered the importance of partnering with an experienced language service provider (LSP). Not only is this partnership critical to help businesses overcome language barriers, it is absolutely essential to successfully enter new markets. But what should you know about hiring a language provider? Read on for six biotech globalization tips regarding your LSPs and translation.
Going Global In Biotech | Biotech Globalization
Taking your biotechnology company international is challenging – depending on where you’re looking to expand, you must be prepared to enter cultures with entirely different ways of thinking about science and medicine.
With that in mind, the general tips for globalizing a company tend to remain the same, and can be applied to biotechnology companies.
Below, we will outline six biotech globalization tips for translation and localization, and describe how partnering with an experienced language service provider is the way to go when handling international expansion.
6 Biotech Globalization Tips To Help Your Company Achieve International Success
1. Ensure Your Linguists Are Experts in Your Subject Matter
To begin our list of biotech globalization tips, we will discuss one of the most important factors for ensuring an accurate translation of your materials.
Biotech and biopharma materials tend to be technical in nature. Without proper background in the field, individuals may have difficulty understanding the texts.
Therefore, when hiring a translator you should ensure he or she does have a background in technical and scientific language.
Most translators will tell you that they specialize in technical translation. The truth is the term “technical translation” is a general phrase that can have multiple meanings. It is important to remember that a subpar translation of a biotech text can have much more serious repercussions than most other types of translations.
Biotech companies should inquire whether their language company requires translators to hold an advanced degree in the subject matter they are translating. To translate a report on a new drug to treat high blood pressure would you choose a linguist with a background in patent law?
It’s likely you wouldn’t, as legal technical language is going to be very different from scientific and medical language. A good language service provider should never try to convince you a linguist with no background in your field is the best way to go.
One way you can check a LSP’s experience is looking into who they’ve worked with before – do you recognize the names? Are there good reviews for the LSP by other leaders in your industry? If finding reviews is difficult, you can also request a sample translation of documents.
2. Request a Sample Translation From The Translation Agency
Biotech companies conduct clinical trials on new products, and drugs undergo quality control testing prior to being used in clinical trials or their release on the market. So why not do the same with your translation company, and test them out before handing over your sensitive materials?
The quality of your translated materials will determine the success of your product to a great extent.
In most companies dealing with translation, professional translators are required to pass a quality test to prove their translation and localization skills, as well as their expertise in a particular field. So take the opportunity to evaluate the translation quality before you accept to work with a particular language company, and ask them for a sample of their work.
3. Culturally Adapt Your Images, Colors, And Other Branding
Are there any images or diagrams in your packaging or marketing materials that may be considered offensive in a foreign market? One major role of a translation company is to make you aware of any potential cultural or linguistic misunderstandings, and help to ensure that you use appropriate images and content.
Remember that pictures can have as strong of an impact as words. While owls represent wisdom in the Western world, they are considered bad luck in some Eastern societies. Even colors can make a difference. In Latin America, for example, people may prefer brighter colors, whereas other cultures may respond to more neutral ones. Aside from that, colors often carry cultural meanings.
What’s one color you never want to use to market your pharmaceuticals or medical devices in certain Eastern or Asian cultures?
White. Whereas white is associated with innocence, purity, and even cleanliness in Western countries, it symbolizes death, bad luck, and mourning in many Eastern cultures – not exactly the message you want to portray when introducing a new drug or medical device!
Translation agencies have experience dealing with localization for international markets, and therefore are best able to guide you in terms of linguistic and cultural factors that may impact a particular market.
Your translation partner can also help you minimize costs associated with instructional diagrams or graphic translation, and help you decide how to best present your brand to international consumers.
But that’s not all…
Marketing for International Consumers Goes Beyond Brand Localization in the Life Sciences
While brand portrayal is important whenever a company looks to new markets, Biotech and Medical Technology companies need to take extra precautions due to safety hazards.
Specifically, the translation of labeling and packaging for distribution to international markets — whether a new biologic, a medical device, or a prescription drug, providing professionally translated materials, such as labels and instructions, can mean the difference between life and death.
In order to meet international regulations, these materials must therefore also be translated and adapted for the target consumers. The best method to avoid any such issues is to provide multilingual labels and instructions.
4. Translate Your Website, Software, and Applications
As companies increase their investments in emerging markets, website translation and localization has become a growing necessity.
Product information, trial descriptions, and much more can be found on the websites of biotechnology companies. In order to make them truly accessible to new markets, they will need to be translated.
If you know you will need translation before you’ve launched your English site, you should consider website localization during construction of the web pages. As a general rule, most languages will take up more space after translation than the English text.
For example, when an English text is translated into French or Spanish, the resulting translation is up to 30% longer than the original text. German or Dutch texts can be 35% or more than their English equivalent.
Non-Latin scripts may significantly change the amount or orientation of the space, e.g. horizontal versus vertical, while technical texts tend to use less space. So remember to reserve 25%-35% more space when translating from English into most other languages!
Aside from websites, applications or software you have that will also be introduced into the international market will need to undergo translation and localization. This includes adapting the UI/UX design to be more natural for international users, along with translating text.
5. Translate Clinical Research Documentation
If your biopharma or medical device company is planning on conducting clinical trials abroad, you will need to prepare all of your regulatory documents in the official language of the country or region where you will be conducting trials.
Moreover, any patient recruitment materials and patient related information must be translated into the native language of the patient population you are enrolling in your study.
These materials must also be culturally adapted to avoid any misunderstandings or ethical issues which may interfere with the informed consent process.
Make sure you communicate well in advance with your language service partner or CRO to identify any unique regulatory requirements, including those from local IRBs, or linguistic and cultural barriers that need to be addressed. This will ensure that the regulatory approval process will not be delayed unnecessarily.
6. Build a Relationship with Your Language Service Provider
Out of all our biotech globalization tips, this last one is truly understood by the companies with the most international success.
These companies rely heavily on their language service providers to help them navigate through the ever-growing complexities of changing regulatory environments and overcoming the numerous language and cultural barriers encountered.
They achieve what seems like effortless cross-cultural communication whether entering new markets, collaborating abroad to develop a new drug, or conducting clinical trials in a new region. But the ability to connect on a local level successfully can only be achieved through a strong partnership with a good translation and localization agency.
So establish a strong relationship from the start and keep the communication lines open for the entire duration of the project!
Do These Biotech Globalization Tips Cover Everything?
While these biotech globalization tips cover the basics, localization and translation services for biotech, pharmaceutical, and life science materials in general will vary in technical difficulty.
This may call for more technical translation and extensive proofreading processes. The best way to determine what the scope of your biotech translation and localization project will be is to get in touch with a language service provider.
Learn more about our Life Science Translation services!
About Language Connections:
Language Connections is one of the top language service companies in the US. Over the last 30 years, we’ve focused on providing the best business translation services, interpreting services, as well as interpreter training and customized language training programs. In addition to top-tier corporate language training, we offer certified corporate interpreters and professional business translation services in 200+ languages. Our network includes linguists with backgrounds in all major industries. They’re ready to meet your needs, whether they’re for technical translation services, legal translation, government translation services, international development translation services, education translation services, life sciences translation, or something else. Reach out to us today for a free quote on our cost-efficient and timely translation services, interpreters, or other linguistic services.
Language Connections Inc.
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