Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions globalizes its medical communications services

A longtime leader in medical communications services, Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions (Bridgewater, NJ) has branded a new service, inScience Communications, with two goals in mind: to combine its scientific and medical writing capabilities, and to streamline the process of conveying medical information developed in the US or Europe to emerging pharma markets in Latin America and Asia. The company says that it has extensive “local expertise” in countries around the globe whose efforts can be coordinated with global management. In doing so, it expects to mirror the efforts of most multinational pharma companies, who are looking to tap into the faster growth of emerging markets.

The status of medical communications itself is changing, says Bryce Murray, GM, Global Medical Communications at W-K. Critics have railed against the industry’s outsourcing (“ghostwriting”) of medical communications—including the composition of peer-reviewed articles and reports—but says that a few bad actors have tarnished the entire business service. Organizations like the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (icmje.org) have already written tighter standards that will be applied by many leading biomedical journals, and the field of medical writing itself is trying to professionalize. (ICMJE’s standards include divulging the participation of outside writers or other whiting services.) “We’re living in a transparency-driven world,” he says.

On the other hand, the need for quality medical writing has never been higher, he says, noting that the growth of pharma and biotech research in Asia has led to the growth of non-English-language journals there. A related part of Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions is providing advice on where to publish.