TransCelerate Selects Cognizant to Develop a Clinical Trials Collaboration Platform

Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) today announced that it has been selected by TransCelerate BioPharma Inc., a non-profit organization with membership representation from 19 major pharmaceutical companies, to develop a first-of-its-kind, subscription-based platform that will transform the way clinical sites collaborate with pharmaceutical companies on clinical trials. TransCelerate BioPharma Inc. is dedicated to making the research and development process more efficient across the pharmaceutical industry.                         

The Shared Investigator Platform, which will be built as an 'industry utility', will enable the pharmaceutical industry to bring standardization and consistency to clinical trials. Investigator platforms are often deployed by each pharmaceutical company resulting in clinical sites using multiple environments, introducing complexity and risk. By bringing together clinical sites and sponsors spread across the world on a common platform, pharmaceutical companies can run clinical trials more efficiently and accelerate the development of new medicines.

The new platform will enhance organizational productivity by providing investigators and site staff with a central, single access point to clinical trial information, enhancing accuracy, and reducing study start-up time. It will also help pharmaceutical companies to improve quality, regulatory compliance, process visibility, and capacity, while reducing investigator efforts related to training, document exchange, and support. In the future, the platform may provide regulators with an efficient electronic audit process and better insight into clinical trials.

"This collaboration is an important part of TransCelerate's strategy to improve clinical trial processes in order to bring innovative new medicines to patients faster," said Jackie Kent, Senior Director, Clinical Development Information and Optimization, Eli Lilly & Co., and Shared Investigator Platform Leader, TransCelerate. "The Shared Investigator Platform will benefit sites by simplifying processes, and reducing time and effort spent on standard study activities. TransCelerate conducted a comprehensive selection process for this initiative and Cognizant provided the key attributes required for this unique partnership. We anticipate an overall improvement in the quality of studies and the data generated from the Shared Investigator Platform initiative."

"We are pleased to partner with TransCelerate to build this first-of-a-kind platform, which will help maximize the potential of technology-based collaboration and provide better medicines to patients, greater efficiency to clinical sites, and superior business outcomes to pharmaceutical sponsors," said Bhaskar Sambasivan, Vice President of Cognizant's Life Sciences practice. "Streamlining the clinical trials process will enable TransCelerate's member companies to not only speed up drug development, but also drive innovation in improving patient health. We are making a significant commitment and investment in this strategic relationship, and will leverage our industry expertise and technology capabilities to ensure that the proprietary platform, built as an industry utility, delivers optimal value. We will also seek inputs from end-users to continually enhance the platform."