How pharma is rethinking business strategies in a post-Covid era

Alan White, business development director at The Translation People discusses how pharmaceutical businesses are operating in the post-Covid era.

Never before has the pharmaceutical industry been under the spotlight in such a conjoined, simultaneous, global capacity. 

Coronavirus has presented a whole new challenge; the industry is at a standing start in terms of a vaccine and needs to mobilise faster than ever, against unique restrictions and challenges. Almost as difficult as creating a vaccine itself is the industry’s ability to communicate the developments, issues and opportunities it presents in multiple languages. 

But as well as informing the media and public about how feasible a vaccine is and when it might be available, pharmaceutical companies are working hard to identify the ways they can efficiently collaborate with one other and continue to build business momentum long into the future.

Whether it’s cancelled conferences, meetings going virtual, sales representatives unable to visit their customers, or researchers having to rely on tech to collaborate with their team and other organisations and institutes, the pharmaceutical business world looks very different to how it did at the beginning of the year.

Traditional ways of working for the industry are quickly being displaced, with new, alternative services and tools used to strengthen relationships with colleagues, partners, investors and other stakeholders. Developments in translation technology are designed to overcome challenges for pharmaceutical businesses that need to communicate globally, and will become a key part in helping the industry navigate the changing business landscape.  

Disparate collaboration 

World leaders from developed nations recently contributed a collective £6.5bn, to research Covid-19 via a virtual event hosted by the EU. Pre-Covid-19, this global gathering would likely have required months of upfront planning, but it was organised in only a few days. 

Ordinarily, organisations taking part in international conferences and events would fly in interpreters to translate live in real time. However, in a bid to save costs and time, as well as reduce the impact on the environment, there has been an increase in demand for services such as multilingual, remote conferencing and interpreting platforms. These facilitate an unlimited number of virtual interpreting booths, accessed remotely by organisers and participants around the world. Each user is allocated a qualified linguist who not only translates in whatever language they select as their preferred choice, but who is highly experienced in the pharmaceutical sector so they can translate even the most complex of sector terminology in real time.

Now that businesses can no longer meet at live events or conferences, such virtual interpreting systems and services are proving to be invaluable in virtual meetings where there are participants or audiences from around the world. 

Digital learning and development 

Training, workshops, demonstrations and sharing knowledge are all key in the pharmaceutical industry – not just from a research and development point of view, but for the wider business too. Whether companies are thinking about HR, operations, finance or marketing, teams need to communicate, stay motivated and keep on top of the latest learnings – which is where e-learning can come in. 

Offering webinars or podcasts which facilitate digital learning remotely will enable firms to continue to upskill their teams to drive the industry forwards, while those that enable multiple parties to come together on one platform will act as a vessel for collaboration, sharing of knowledge and the chance to work together on projects.  

Businesses that can offer training, tutorials, forums and workshops in this interactive way will be identified as those which place great value on human interaction, during a time when we feel very much apart. And for an industry which relies inherently on international relationships, this practice will become vital. 

As such, it’s important any content created for this purpose is made accessible to partners around the world. The use of foreign language voiceovers and subtitles will help to make the learning materials more accessible, helping to build engaged audiences the world over. 

Driving clinical change through language  

It is essential to communicate the critical role of trials in the development of medicine, so those taking part understand any risks to their health and the role they play in creating a better future. There are currently 650 groups around the world carrying out 460 different coronavirus vaccine trials on hundreds of thousands of individuals from different nationalities. Doing so relies on willing participants to offer their health in exchange for something which may or may not have an adverse effect on their life.  

Messaging about clinical trials must be accessible across multiple platforms – a variety of online, print and video – and requires the production of swathes of collateral including patient information leaflets, patient questionnaires, patient reported outcomes, informed consent forms and much more. Each must be tailored to the audience it is intended for; not just translated into their language but adapted to ensure it is culturally relevant and drives them to take action.  

Transcreation – a highly creative translation service, which falls somewhere between translation and foreign language copywriting – can transform marketing campaigns for clinical trials from informative and jargon-filled, to impactful and colloquial, and is equally effective when it comes to promoting vaccines which make it to market. 

Turning the pharmaceutical language behind the development of a vaccine into engaging, accessible content will play a huge part in accelerating the medical science developments in response to Covid-19 . And it will go far beyond Covid-19, potentially leading to even greater engagement with medical and clinical trials well into the future.  

Many nations, one message

The pandemic has shone a spotlight on the hidden – but constant – role the pharmaceutical sector plays in keeping the world safe. But looking beyond the current climate, there will be a need for the industry to change to ensure it can continue to develop new medicines using expertise from around the world and support business growth when we can’t currently be face-to-face, in a physical capacity. 

Through effective translation and the technology and services which accompany it, the industry can still achieve a strong level of continuity and communicate the vital role pharmaceuticals play in society. When we are literally talking about life and death, there is no rationale for ignoring the huge difference it makes to receive information in your own language.