Medical writing in India
India’s medical writing profession includes in-house, outsourced and freelance work, with a qualified workforce whose awareness and career development have been examined within a large pharmaceutical employer.
Growth and business models
By 2018, medical writing in India had grown steadily since 2005, supported by skilled professionals, English speakers and lower costs; generating medical content was estimated to cost 40%–60% of the equivalent in the USA and Europe. India was described as having the world’s second-largest English-speaking scientific workforce after the USA, with thousands of new master’s and doctoral graduates annually. The predominance of English in medical writing had encouraged pharmaceutical companies to establish dedicated departments in India.
Most professional writers worked in pharmaceutical companies, contract research organisations, knowledge process outsourcing companies or freelance practice, with others in medical media, journals, academic institutions, scientific societies, healthcare websites and government organisations.
In-house pharmaceutical teams were typically integrated with medical or regulatory affairs and worked closely with authors and scientific teams, with access to product strategy and communication plans that helped them contextualise messages and data. Contract research organisations and medical communications agencies supplied services to different companies without generally forming part of their clients’ organisations. A hybrid model supplied internal clients in other countries from an economical location, combining proximity to company strategy with cost-effective delivery.
The surveyed workforce
An anonymous November 2017 survey covered medical writers in the medical communications and medical information departments of Novartis Healthcare in Hyderabad, one of India’s largest writing pools; its restriction to one company may limit generalisation. Of 192 invitees, 174 (91%) attempted the survey and 154 (80% of invitees) who completed it were analysed. The highest qualification was a master’s degree for 50%, a doctorate in life or pharmaceutical sciences for 47%, and a bachelor’s degree in medicine or dentistry for 3%. Experience was more than five years for 32%, three to five years for 25%, one to three years for 27% and less than a year for 16%.
Awareness and education/skill utilisation were rated on ten-point scales: 1–3 meant no or very little knowledge/utilisation, 4–7 somewhat or to a good extent, and 8–10 fully aware or to a great extent.
Awareness before and after entry
Respondents could select several ways they had learned about medical writing: seniors, friends or relatives were named by 80 (52%), job portals, LinkedIn or newspapers by 78 (51%), and recruiters by 34 (22%). Two-thirds (66%) said they entered by choice and 34% by chance.
Respondents rated awareness of the profession and its growth avenues at a mean of 5 before entry and 8 afterwards; 10% scored 8–10 before entry and 57% afterwards. Post-entry full awareness was higher with greater experience, reaching 38/49 (78%) among those with more than five years and 22/39 (56%) among those with three to five years.
Roles and use of education
In the Novartis sample, 142 respondents (92%) had held a core writing role, while twelve (8%) had a project-management background without writing exposure. Sixty (39%) had held at least two different roles; of these, forty-six (77%) had experienced both functional and operational roles. Some respondents had held as many as six roles. For moves into more than two roles, the reported figures by experience group were 55% (33) for more than five years, 25% (15) for three to five years, 15% (9) for one to three years, and 5% (2) for less than a year.
The most common moves beyond core writing were people management (31) and project management or specialist roles (25); functional switches totalled 68 and operational switches 75. Other moves included medico-marketing, competitive intelligence, regulatory writing and medical scientific liaison work.
Respondents could select all roles held during their careers, so these counts describe career experience rather than current staffing. Functional-role counts were:
| Role | Respondents |
|---|---|
| Medical, scientific or publication writer | 117 |
| Medical information writer or manager | 22 |
| Medical or scientific lead | 16 |
| Scientific editor | 12 |
| Copy editor | 11 |
| Other | 7 |
The operational roles included people manager, project manager/specialist/coordinator, operations manager, medical communication lead/publication manager, service manager, account manager/service liaison and head of medical writing. Operations managers numbered ten, medical communication leads/publication managers six, account managers/service liaisons two and heads of medical writing one.
Most respondents (93%) rated education and skill utilisation from somewhat/good to full/great extent: 51% scored 8–10 and 42% scored 4–7. The mean was 7 overall, 8 among those with more than five years’ experience, and 7 among those with three to five years or less than a year. High utilisation was reported whether entry had been by choice or chance.
Career aspirations
Sixty-one respondents (40%) wanted to remain in medical writing for five to ten years and fifty-two (34%) for more than ten years, totalling 74% beyond five years. Functional expert roles, such as senior writer, scientific editor or scientific/medical lead, appealed to 38%; operational roles, such as people, account or project manager, appealed to 39%. Thirteen percent wanted to leave the profession and 10% were unsure of their path.
This differed from an earlier pattern described in India of writers using the profession to enter a pharmaceutical company before moving on after a few years. Skill utilisation and opportunities to grow in a preferred direction were suggested as reasons for longer-term intentions, alongside generally good compensation, security, working conditions and work-life balance. For many writers, these opportunities may make medical writing a rewarding long-term profession.
Raising awareness among prospective writers
A lack of formal academic medical-writing education or professional certification programmes was suggested as a possible reason for limited awareness in India, potentially discouraging life-science and medical graduates from choosing the field. By 2018, some online courses and association seminars and conferences were raising awareness, but further work among students and aspiring writers was considered necessary. Proposed measures were:
- Certified, industry-led training programmes with a controlled curriculum.
- Internships for aspiring writers in reputable companies.
- Scientific writing in academic education.
- Local medical-writing conferences, workshops and publications.
These measures might help bridge demand and supply and create career opportunities for an existing qualified pool.