Medical writing departments in biopharma companies: how to establish a department.

Medical writers have important roles in preparing the documentation for approval for marketing of new products, writing manuscripts for publication, and other nonclinical, clinical, and promotional materials. Medical writing departments can be organized in different ways to accommodate the needs of the company. When organizing a new department or when determining metric for an existing department, it is important to understand what medical writers in the biopharma industry do, how they are recruited and trained, and how metrics are developed.