A scientist’s and a journalist’s hat

Catherine Mary is both a scientist and a journalist. She obtained her PhD in virology (HIV) in 1994 and then worked during two years as a journalist for the French magazine “Biofutur” before becoming a freelance narrative medical writer in 1997.

Her contributions have ranged from conference coordination and reporting, marketing, educational materials to popularization of science and medicine (multimedia animations, books).
Her clients have included pharmaceutical industry, public health institutions, and governmental departments and agencies.

She has covered a wide range of public health and environmental fields, including infectious diseases and vaccinology, sexuality, health prevention topics (obesity, smoking…), genetics and genetically modified plants.

Notably, over the last 8 years, she has written numerous marketing documents on influenza, including conference reports, newsletters and monographs for Sanofi Pasteur and Sanofi Pasteur MSD. She has written conference reports targeting KOLs and policy makers of the main international influenza conferences (IVW 2003 and 2006, ESWI 2002, 2005 and 2008, Option V and VI). These conference reports use scientific results to address the stakes of influenza control policies and provide a strategic analysis of the situation.

Catherine Mary is also a workshop leader as part as the educational program of the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA).

Narrative writing

Writing supplied by Avicenne differentiates from traditional medical writing by its journalist’s approach: not only scientific data are rigorously synthesised but the writing is alive and creative (quotations, box, bullets points, highlights…) and carefully intended to transmit key messages to a specific public whether the readers are opinion leaders, marketing executives, general public or chlidren.