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Context

Altana Pharma, part of the Altana Group, is a world renowned, research led pharmaceutical company. The gastrointestinal product Pantoprazole is one of the most successful prescription drugs ever to be developed in a German research laboratory. Global sales of this product reached EUR 2.5 billion in 2004.

Altana Pharma recognised the importance of supplying worldwide distributors and licensees of their product with the resources needed to communicate its unique properties and outstanding clinical advantages to prescribers. Traditionally, multiple language training manuals were printed in large quantities. This is a prohibitively expensive process and one which Medical Action Communications and e-scape media felt would be solved by bringing new media into the marketing mix.

Objectives

• Develop a cost effective way to replace a 500-page printed manual
• Create and deliver the new product training manual
• Ensure that the tool is multi-language ready
• Ensure that it may be re-purposed for future product launches

Solution

Building on a relationship that spans eight years, pharmaceutical marketing agency Medical Action Communications approached e-scape media to develop an idea to use CD-ROM as the delivery medium for this project. We agreed that plenty of storage space and opportunities to create more than just a manual made it the obvious choice. The concept balanced the sensitivities of the audience, a percentage of which is considered resistant to change, with a cost-effective solution. The CD-ROM contains four modules, each readable like a book, a comprehensive search facility and interactive glossary and referencing, enabling entries to be viewed at the click of a mouse. If required, the whole manual can be printed out to look exactly like a printed version with appropriately branded binders and title pages. However, this was only half the story.

We introduced an editing facility to enable content translation to take place at a local level. The editing system allows each page to be fully re-formatted if necessary, using an interface similar to Microsoft Word to avoid a steep learning curve. The translation process, from draft to final copy, is designed to be completed entirely using the editing suite. Once a translated version is complete, the suite creates a local language CD-ROM with all the browsing functionality but without the editing suite. Duplication and distribution was handled at a local level. In short, we created a production tool for interactive training manuals.

For further examples of the work we carry out, please contact us.