9 Reasons Proofreading in Life Sciences Can Be a Nightmare

Risks, stress and more; there is a lot at stake when proofreading in life sciences.

Here are nine reasons why proofreading in life sciences can be a nightmare.

1. Increased Risk

Stakes are very high in Life Sciences because mistakes on labeling and packaging pose a risk to patient health. Potential misprints or labeling-related corrective and preventive action (CAPA) may be required. In some cases, the product must be recalled. Recalls are not only costly and jeopardize the profitability of products and companies, but they also impact the company’s reputation, the brand’s value and the availability of a product, potentially leading to loss of market share and market value.

2. Cost

Proofreading in the Life Sciences industry requires the involvement of highly qualified professionals with knowledge about both the product and regulatory and local market requirements. This creates a hidden cost of proofreading, as these professionals’ skills are not being used on more value-adding or strategic tasks.

3. Human Error

People make mistakes. It’s what makes us human and how we learn. The issue, when it comes to editing and proofreading medical labeling and packaging, is that there is no room for error. People’s lives are at risk. However, it is also unrealistic to think that someone can review a multi-page leaflet in 9pt font size without ever missing something. This becomes even less realistic when the proofreader must review the same document for the 3^rd time, at the end of a long day or just after lunch.

4. Deadlines

Life Sciences professionals often tell us how difficult it is to meet tight deadlines. Products must get to market quickly to maximize patent and exclusivity periods or to keep the edge on competitors. Proofreading is time consuming and deadlines put on manually proofreading regulatory content create a pressure cooker environment.

5. Increased Stress

Proofreaders in Life Sciences bear a heavy weight because of risk and cost factors. Proofreading manually can make this task seem never ending. Proofreaders carry the responsibility of getting it right – always.

6. Multiple Languages and Regional Expertise

Proofreading foreign languages manually is a nightmare if the right processes are not in place. Local language experts are required, which adds potential delays and workflow challenges.

7. Layout Challenges

Comparing a five-page Word document to a one-page PDF document that has a completely different layout further adds to the complexity of the proofreading process in Life Sciences. Adding proofreading Braille or barcodes, or ensuring consistency between the electronic and paper versions of labels can make your worst dreams come true.

8. Change Control

Working with external partners such as artwork teams, translators, contract research organisations (CROs) and printers often means additional review cycles to check for unapproved changes – a nightmare for any proofreader.

9. Boredom

Quite frankly, proofreading the same document manually for the fourth or fifth time is not only stressful, as mentioned in point #5, but also tedious and boring. Whenever one change is made to a text, the whole document must be re-read, always, adding to the boredom, which in turn increased the likelihood of missing an error. And also… Is the document always re-read entirely? Most admit it is not.