Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has outsourced its IT operations across 45 countries to IBM Global Services in a seven-year $1.7bn deal.

Under the agreement, IBM will take over PC management, network and communications services, email and computer operations support. Up to 1200 AstraZeneca IT staff in the US, UK and Sweden will transfer to IBM. The deal is the largest outsourcing contract signed in the pharmaceutical industry.

AstraZeneca will retain control of its IT technical strategy and the development and support of its application systems, however.

"This will allow AstraZeneca to concentrate the effort of its information services capabilities on such strategic opportunities as ebusiness and informatics in research and development," said AstraZeneca chief information officer Paul Burfitt.

Half of companies intend to outsource more, according to a survey by analyst Forrester Research. Industry insiders see no let-up in demand for huge deals, despite suggestions from analysts that companies should split their outsourcing contracts between multiple suppliers.

"I don't believe that the large international deals are drying up. They will become more common rather than less," Cap Gemini Ernst & Young chief executive Maurice Abell told Computing.