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What Does a
Pharmaceutical
Technical Writer Do?

Josh Fechter
Updated on February 6th, 2022

A pharmaceutical technical writer prepares

medical documentation such as instruction guides,
precautions for medications, manuals, and
reference guides.

Pharmaceutical technical writing is a specialized

field. It requires much more attention to prepare
pharmaceutical documentation in comparison to
writing any generic SOP document.

In usual circumstances, chemists find it

challenging to write tech documentation, and the
same is the case with biologists and
microbiologists. The dire requirement of medical
documentation mirrors the need for technical
writers in the pharmaceutical industry.

According to Glassdoor’s salary estimate, a

pharma technical writer has an average salary
estimate of $78k per year. The salaries range from
$37k-$178k according to different companies with
an average of $78k.

In this article, we will look up to duties of the

pharmaceutical technical writer. Let’s dive right in.

Pharmaceutical Technical
Writer Role and
Responsibilities
A pharmaceutical tech writer leads and handles
the development of technical documentation in a
pharmaceutical company.

Documentation includes preparing clinical study

reports, standard operating procedures, and test
scripts. Here’s the list of duties a pharmaceutical
writer is responsible for:

1. Assessing the Creation

of Procedural Documents
Tech writers in pharmaceutical companies are
primarily responsible to research how updating
and assessing procedural technical documents
influence other technical documentation.

2. Identify SMEs and

Partners
Pharm tech writers work on identifying the small
and medium enterprise partners. Likewise, they
also ensure that SMEs take an active part in
developing the technical content during the
revisions and after approval cycles.

3. Prepares Procedural
Documents
Writers in the pharmaceutical industry are
responsible to lead the technical writing of
medications. It requires collaboration with SME(s)
and manufacturing process managers. They
translate complex technical information to easy
material, process maps. Likewise, they cross-
check the preventive actions, inspection
commitments, and process deviations. This
collaboration addresses any critical gaps in
medicine manufacturing and documentation.

4. Overviews Process
Mapping Activities
Pharmaceutical writers collect details of
manufacturing processes like boundaries, scopes,
process inputs, process outputs, and sequences.
They also facilitate these technical process
mappings, thus allowing the identification of
wastes and bottlenecks. Through the visualization
of data flowcharts, they devise methods to
minimize waste and redundancies.

5. Incorporates Reviews
into Documentation
Tech writers in the medical industry incorporate
the feedback and reviews obtained from higher
documentation roles. They work on improving the
documentation through these reviews and ensure
zero redundancy in complex information.

6. Collaborate with
Managers
Pharmaceutical tech writers collaborate with
quality managers to ensure the content is
according to the company’s SOPs and standards.
They cross-check the content and ensure that
information aligns with the company’s technical
writing principles and content standards.

7. Maintains Work Schedule

Pharma writers maintain work schedules. Tech
writers mitigate and identify any risk issues in the
project procurement.

They also support any process implementations

and collaborate with change managers and global
training managers for development.

8. Prepares Medical User

Guides
Just like any other technical writer, the pharmacy
writers prepare medical reference guides and
medical equipment user manuals. These duties
demand high expertise and medical knowledge
along with strong attention to detail.

9. Updates their Medical

Knowledge
As advancements are crucial, writers in
pharmaceutical companies update their medical
knowledge to sustain their credibility.

10. Prepares Marketing

Documents
As the drugs are targeted at consumers and
health professionals, a drug writer is responsible
to write the documentation and marketing content
by keeping in view the audience’s expertise.

In addition to that, a technical writer also writes

business presentations and breaks down the
complex information into plainer languages to
inform health care professionals about the
advantages of a certain drug.

Sometimes, a technical writer in the medical

industry also develops website content,
newsletters, and other marketing information.

The day-to-day tasks can vary, but these are some

of the generic duties of pharma technical writers.

What are the Skills of a

Pharmaceutical Technical
Writer?
A technical writer in the pharmaceutical industry
should understand the sophisticated pieces of
information to convey its plain meaning to a
diversified audience. Here are some skills of a
pharmacy tech writer:

Translate complex information into lean and

digestible pieces of content

Familiarity with process mapping tools like

Microsoft Visio

Good verbal and written language skills

Skillful to write sophisticated processes into

the informational and explanatory style of text

Know-how of process improvement and

procedural documentation rules

Good at problem-solving skills

Collaboration and team working skills

Optimal communication skills with diverse

departments

Skillful to draft documentation from the

provided templates and drafts

Familiarity with official drug association rules

and regulations

Employers prefer a BS degree in a related field.

According to a pharmacy tech writer's latest job
alert by Simply Hired, 5-6 years of pharmaceutical
industry technical writing experience is good along
with a BS degree, while 4 years of experience is
appreciable along with a Master’s degree in the
related field.

If you are applying to a technical writing job alert,

make sure you fulfill the minimum and preferred
qualification and writing skills criteria.

What are SOPs for

Pharmaceutical Technical
Writing?
Pharmaceutical writing is challenging as this field
requires a continuous update of knowledge to
sustain credibility. There are some rules specified
for regulatory writing. Here are those rules:

1. Work on clarity
As the pharmaceutical documentation aim for
different audiences, make sure the information
serves the purpose for each reader. Avoid words
like often, several, few, recently, usually as these
words are vague and can interpret different
meanings for different readers.

2. Improve Document
Design
Document formatting is a crucial step in
pharmaceutical documentation. Check whether
there are huge chunks of text or not. If any, then
divide those chunks into digestible pieces of text.

Make use of various headings and sub-headings

and draw attention to text with the use of tables
and figures.

3. Conciseness
Conciseness is the level of understanding of the
text for the readers. In pharmaceutical writing, the
information is crucial and can be fatal if delivered
in the wrong way. Focus on the conciseness of
text to make the pharmaceutical drugs information
clear to both consumers and health professionals.
Write in simple and catchable words. Do not
present any challenges to the audience and use
plain language.

Prevent passive voice and prepositional text. In

addition, use an active voice tone to keep the
subject always at the beginning of a sentence.

4. Know Your Audience

In pharmaceutical writing, audience identification
is the first step of documentation. Find out whether
the audience is drug consumers, health care
professionals, or other industries. After that, draft
the content by considering the audience’s
expertise.

Define highly technical terms, abbreviations, and

synonyms at the start of documentation for easy
digestion. Align pharmacy documentation with
your company’s content standards. Pay close
attention to the accuracy of the content.

Summary
Pharmaceutical tech writers are responsible to
write medical user guides, reference guides, and
drug-associated manuals.

Normal duties of a pharm tech writer involve the

assessment and creation of medical procedural
technical documents, identification of SME(s) and
business partners, preparation of procedural
documentation, an overview of process mapping
activities, and knowing the incorporation of
feedback into the work. Work duties involve
collaboration with quality managers, maintaining
project consistency, and continuously up-leveling
their pharmacy knowledge.

A pharmacy technical writer must follow the

company’s SOPs and rules for pharmacy content.
They must be skillful with process mapping tools
and have good written and verbal communication
skills. Many employers appreciate the skills to
write complex information into easily digestible
pieces of text in the form of reports.

Thus, the requirement is at least a bachelor's or

master's degree to become a pharmacy tech
writer. It is also necessary to continuously update
your writing skills and knowledge.

If you are new to technical writing and are looking

to break in, we recommend taking our Technical
Writing Certification Course, where you will learn
the fundamentals of being a technical writer, how
to dominate technical writer interviews, and how to
stand out as a technical writing candidate.

Josh Fechter

Josh is the founder of Technical Writer HQ and

Squibler, a writing software. He is considered one of
the top product influencers in the world by Product
School and one of the top technical writers. He has
been writing software tutorials, manuals, handbooks,
and white papers for over eight years.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pharmaceutical Technical Writer Role and

Responsibilities

What are the Skills of a Pharmaceutical Technical

Writer?

What are SOPs for Pharmaceutical Technical Writing?

Summary

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