MedDRA in pharmaceutical translation training

Abstract

The pharmaceutical industry leads one of the most important economic sectors worldwide and generates an enormous number of documents, which makes pharmaceutical translation an important source of work for professionals who specialize in this field. Rapid globalization prompted the creation of MedDRA (Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities), a standardized medical-pharmaceutical terminology, currently mandatory in all Western countries, which the future pharmaceutical translator must know. However, it is a rather complex and extensive tool; it is not open access – which makes it difficult to include it in the curricula – and there are practically no articles in Spanish. This paper provides a description of MedDRA, with special emphasis on its importance and usefulness for the training of medical-pharmaceutical translators.