Medical writing is viewed as a fast developing discipline, which involves writing on topics useful for the medical fraternity and drug development. Today, medical writing can be seen as an established function in the pharmaceutical world, with the emphasis on a well-structured document that presents information and the underlying diagnosis/analysis clearly and concisely.

Medical writing refers to the art of writing scientific documentation by a person who is a specialized writer (a medical writer). Such kind of a person is engaged in communication in the medical or allied professions and sciences. Medical writers should possess both an understanding of science and the ability to write about it, which will enable them to bring clarity to complex topics.

In India, there is a vast scope for this field and upcoming medical writers. Increasingly, pharmaceutical companies are turning to India in order to tap the medical writing potential of the country. A large pool of qualified and experienced professionals, cost effectiveness and wide English usage are seen as major advantages that make India a dream destination for outsourcing medical writing.

There have been vast developments all over the world which has led to an increasing demand for acquiring new drugs in the market as quickly as possible. In order to fulfill this requirement, clear documents having the specific details and easy readability is a big necessity. This, in turn has led to the growth of professional medical writing. It has been noticed that over the past two decades Medical writing in Europe and North America has experienced rapid growth.

The market for medical writing today is over $600 million and it has been growing at a rate of 15 percent a year over the past few years.

India possesses a pool of qualified, talented and experienced medical scientists. Every year, the country produces approximately three million graduates, 700,000 post-graduates and 1500 PhDs in the scientific stream. Around 18,000 medical graduates passing out from 200 medical schools are also included. There are professionals with a thorough knowledge of good clinical practice, drug development, experience with basic and clinical sciences and good writing skills. Several others possess industry experience and can therefore collate reports and analyze safety data.

Meticulous attention to detail and the ability to analyze both descriptive and numeric data are two main qualities of a medical writer. As English is the primary language of these professionals, they are able to communicate and produce good quality, scientific documents similar to their American and British counterparts. Some estimates reveal that 15 percent of the scientific population of pharmaceutical and biotech companies in U.S. is of Indian origin.

Students can have a very lucrative and stimulating career in Medical Writing. Freelance writing is another attractive option for some experienced individuals. Medical writers in the Pharmaceutical industry may start with a salary of $75,000 a year, but can top $100,000 after three or four years. Once a writer reaches the managerial level, you might make $120,000 or more.

In the Pharmaceutical industry, medical writers are engaged to work in three main areas:

Regulatory writing: is considered to be an integral part of drug development and the approval process. This kind of writing includes Protocols, Investigator’s brochures, Interim and final clinical study reports, Periodic safety update reports, Serious adverse event reporting, Investigational new drug applications, Common technical documents and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) briefing documents etc.

Marketing material writing: In the marketing area, writers produce documents that advertise drugs and explain their benefits to physicians, pharmacists and consumers. Adequate literature needs to be developed to support the product and issues unique to the company keeping in mind the local and international regulatory guidelines.

Educational medical writing: is writing documents about drugs, devices and biologics for general audiences, and specific audiences like professional healthcare audiences. Under this category come monographs about newly launched drugs for sales representatives, data presentations at medical congresses, medical journal articles for nurses, physicians and pharmacists, and programs and enduring materials for Continuing Education (CE) or Continuing Medical Education (CME) activities.

Others: Scientific medical writers also undertake work like journal abstracts and articles, advertising copy for pharmaceuticals, Internet content and Medical education materials.

TWB is focusing on imparting training to the people so as to produce more medical writers and who further more are interested in pursuing a career in Medical Writing. Communication, teamwork, effective customer interaction, service excellence, and product knowledge enhancement are some of the key areas of focus for TWB.