Case Study: Billion-Dollar Japanese Company achieves 40-language PRO translations for 50-country drug trial with Welocalize

Translation of Patient-Reported Outcomes into 40 Languages for 50-Country Drug Trial

Billion-Dollar Japanese Company, a private firm developing therapies including psychiatric drugs, needed 10 patient-reported outcome (PRO) instruments translated from English into 40 languages for a 50-country drug trial and validated by pilot testing. The client engaged Welocalize Life Sciences for translation and linguistic validation to ensure the instruments measured the same concepts across languages, dialects and cultures.

Welocalize conducted multiple forward translations, reconciled versions, back translation, cultural adaptation into local dialects and cognitive debriefing via moderated focus groups across diverse populations. As a result, Welocalize delivered validated translations in 40 languages, uncovered cognitive, grammatical and cultural issues during focus groups, enabled the client to successfully pool data across 50 countries, and produced culturally relevant, on‑time translations that improved patient compliance and quality of recorded trial data.