Why One Mistranslated Word in a Drug Name Can Be Dangerous
A drug name is not just a word — it is often the only thing standing between a correct dose and a dangerous one. Many drug names differ by a single letter or syllable (for example, hydroxyzine vs. hydralazine, or chlorpromazine vs. chlorpropamide), and in a different language, a translator without pharmaceutical training can easily confuse similar-sounding or similar-looking terms.
The risk goes beyond the drug name itself. Dosage units (mg vs. mcg), frequency instructions ("once daily" vs. "once a day" can be ambiguous if translated too literally), and route of administration (oral vs. topical vs. intravenous) all carry real clinical weight. A patient information leaflet, a prescription, or a clinical trial consent form translated by someone without medical-subject expertise can introduce exactly this kind of ambiguity — even when every individual word is "correct."
This is why pharmaceutical and medical translation should always be handled by translators with a medical, pharmacy, or life-sciences background, followed by a second medical-literate reviewer — the same ISO 17100 TEP (Translate, Edit, Proofread) process we follow for every medical document, regardless of how short it looks.