Translating Pharma: Sales Rep Materials Made Simple

Our collaboration with this leading European pharma company began in autumn 2024, when Mother Tongue’s dedicated Life Sciences division translated and proofread multiple sclerosis drug training modules and objection handling guidance for sales representatives in 5 EMEA languages.  

Prior to starting the project, Mother Tongue’s Life Sciences project managers carefully selected the medical writers with previous translation experience in the neurodegenerative field who would best fit the requirements of the task. Tailoring the materials to the target audience, our specialized writers then focused on preparing translated materials that would not only adhere to the client’s tone of voice but would also convey the scientific messaging to sales representatives in a clear and understandable way. 

The project timeline presented a challenge as well, as the client had a tight deadline for the localized materials to be ready and the source content would only be available in batches. To meet the client’s needs, 3 medical writers per language worked simultaneously, with one QA expert per language reviewing all content to maintain consistency. In doing so, we were able to avoid bottlenecks and delivered all ~300,000 translated words within the timeline. 

As part of the scope Mother Tongue also performed a monolingual review of several English modules, prior to translating them. During the review, our medical proofreader was able to prevent inconsistencies in the source and made necessary stylistic revisions, thus improving flow and readability while ensuring that language, grammar and spelling were appropriate for the intended clinical setting. 

What began as a one-off project, although large in volume, has now flourished into regular collaboration that continues to grow, covering both translation and proofreading.