Challenges in translation of pharmaceutical terms

In the last decades worldwide pharmaceutical industry has shown a profound growth. Due to a burst of development and incredible breakthrough in pharmacy, there is much demand for professional service of translators and interpreters in the Republic of Uzbekistan. If in the first years of independence there were only 2 drug manufacturing companies, which manufactured a total of 20 types of drugs, today, almost 150 pharmaceutical enterprises of the country manufacture over 2 000 items of various medicinal products that are registered and approved for use in medical practice. Since taking the oath as the Second President of Uzbekistan on 14^th December, Shavkat Mirziyoyev has adopted a number of new legislative acts and regulations, aimed at the further development of the pharmaceutical industry and providing the population with affordable, high-quality medicines. Most of researchers and pharmaceutical companies are turning more and more to translation providers for professional translation of their scientific research. Since the precision of the translations is linked to the accuracy of the scientific study results, researchers often turn to translators that have medical translation certification, which in turn has led to an increase in work for language professionals.

In its turn translators and interpreters face with the necessity of translating pharmaceutical documents from Russian into Uzbek or from English into Uzbek or vice versa. There is no doubt that the translation of pharmaceutical terms into many different languages of the world has become one of the most essential and vital issues.

It is worth to note that pharmaceutical translation is an area with distinctive terminology characteristics. The most difficult part of the translation work has been to transfer the specific terminology. Maria Pozzi¹ states that “the ancient process of naming concepts and objects belonging to a special subject or field constitutes an essential part of what is now known as the discipline of terminology”. M. Pozzi suggests that a translator should follow principles of terminology. The terms should be appropriate translation equivalents adapted in spelling and should be found in up-to-date parallel texts that are representative of the field.

Professor Hasan Ghazala² considers that “we translate meaning, nothing else but meaning. This means that anything not relevant to meaning is usually disregarded in translation”. Thus, translation is any process that results in transferring the meaning from one language into another. For Hasan Ghazala the main goal is to transfer meaning of the source language by using the equivalents available in the target language.

Translation of pharmaceutical documents generally requires a pretty good background in chemistry, pharmacy, sometimes microbiology, and pharmaceutical medicine. The translation of pharmaceuticals is one of the scrupulous and time-taking translations that require extreme attention and concentration. A large number of abbreviations, chemical substances and compounds, formulas, figures, as well as the abundance of specific terms — these are only a part of the problems the translator has to face with. It is well known that about three-fourths of medical terminology is of Greek and Latin origin. Today all the top influential medical and pharmaceutical journals are published in English and English has become the language of international conferences. Thus, we have entered the era of medical English. For example:peeling, screening, and scanning. Russians and Uzbek use шунтирование, which is derived from English word shunt.

These days, it is obvious point that pharmaceutical lexical units appear and develop in the English-speaking countries.

There are some primary ways of translation of terms and in the practice of translation of the pharmaceutical documents.

The most common methods of translating the specific features are:

1. Transcription and transliteration;

Fluconazole³ is an antimycotic from the group of triazoles, which is used for the treatment of superficial and systemic fungal infections.

Флуконазол — активное вещество из группы триазола. Он применяется для лечения поверхностных и системных грибковых инфекций.

Криптококкоз, включая криптококковый менингит, грибковые инфекции других органов (легкие, кожа). Флуконазол может использоваться для лечения больных СПИДом и другими иммунодефицитами

2. Translation using a functional analog;

3. Descriptive translation;

In renal transplant patients, fluconazole may increase serum cyclosporine concentrations; therefore, they should be monitored.

У пациентов, которым была осуществлена пересадка почки, флуконазол может повысить концентрации циклоспорина в плазме. Рекомендуется контролировать таких больных.

It is noteworthy that there are certain requirements to pharmaceutical translator. He or she needs to understand:

– the mechanism of drugs, their composition, their therapeutic effects and their adverse effects;

– Greek and Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes used in pharmaceutical terminology;

– basic anatomical notions

Primary goal of pharmaceutical terminology translation is to render scientific information. It aims presenting well expressed information that may be used easily and effectively.

References:

1. Mariá.Pozzi, 1996.Terminology today. In Terminology, LSP and Translation. Studies in language engineering in honour of Juan C. Sager, ed. by Somers, Harold, p.15–20
2. Hasan Ghazala Translation as problems and solutions: A course-book for university students and trainee translators. Dar-el-ilm-lilma layin, p. 3
3. Дифлазон. Инструкция по медицинскому применению препарата