Overcoming confidential information challenges faced by study sponsors today - Volume 32, Issue

As health authorities aim to increase clinical trial transparency and visibility to the public, pharmaceutical manufacturers are facing new pressure points. New regulations require the disclosure of clinical trial application data, many of which cont…

Innovative use of master protocols for pivotal studies in rare diseases - Volume 34, Issue

Recent years have seen the development of clinical study protocols that introduce more complex design features into the usual gold-standard randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Complex protocols are potentially useful for drug evaluation in the…

Reveal, Rebalance, Release: Thoughts on mentoring young professionals in the industry - Volume 30, Issue

Making the first steps as a medical writer in the pharma and biotech industry can be challenging. Three general principles can help managers foster the growth and development of their team members: Reveal, Rebalance, and Release. Reveal means that…

Localisation of promotional materials for pharma - Volume 33, Issue

Unwarranted changes by the client, lengthy approvals, and multiple rounds of revision – localisation of promotional materials for pharmaceutical companies can become a nightmare if the localisation specialist is unaware of heavy regulations in the…

Model-informed drug development in rare diseases - Volume 34, Issue

Model-informed drug development (MIDD) approaches maximise and connect information obtained on a drug during development, allowing better characterisation of its risk: benefit profile. MIDD is especially useful for rare diseases with few patients to…

Package leaflets for medication in the EU: The possibility of integrating patients’ perspectives in a regulated genre? - Volume 24, Issue

Package leaflets (PLs) have been legally required to accompany medicines in the EU since 1999. Despite the best intentions and efforts, however, they are generally not well-received by the public for whom they are intended. This paper picks up on…

Preventing biomedical research waste - Volume 31, Issue

An estimated 85% of efforts in biomedical research are wasted due to inefficiencies. This wastage represents a global financial loss of greater than US$200 billion per year, a barrier to practicing evidence-based medicine, and a considerable amount…

Social Media - Volume 30, Issue

Social media

“For many people, the internet can feel like a lonely place. It can feel like… a big, endless, expansive void where you can constantly call out to it but no one’s ever listening. But… I found, in sharing my feelings with the void, event…

Social media and the rise of predatory journals: A case report - Volume 30, Issue

This is a report of our experience with a predatory journal that invited us to join them after having seen our winning essays on how to identify predatory journals. We applied the system we recommended therein to investigate the true nature of the…

Social Media: A tool that can benefit public health? - Volume 29, Issue

The global use of social media has changed access to health information, and the internet has become its primary source for the general public. However, judging health information on social networks remains difficult for nonmedical readers since…