Case study: AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is looking to consolidate its clinical data management systems

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is set to achieve a reduction in IT spending of $150m (£92.5m) and improved efficiency through systems standardisation and better data management for clinical trials.

The systems were introduced by outsourcer Cognizant, following the start of a $95m, five-year IT services deal in 2007. The initial supplier brief was the automation of the labour-intensive process for collecting and reporting clinical trial data from 150 yearly studies involving 50,000 patients across 50 countries.

Some 1,100 IT staff worked in data management at AstraZeneca prior to the start of the outsourcing agreement. The new structure translates to a reduction in the workforce to some 300 Cognizant staff and 50 AstraZeneca employees.

The business claims to have already enhanced its clinical trial processes after introducing applications covering areas such as planning, clinical study set-up for electronic data capture, medical coding, adverse event data reconciliation and clinical data management.

At the same time, standardisation of processes is taking place. AstraZeneca inherited different processes and systems as a result of mergers and so ended up with 50 systems worldwide. It aims to reduce that number by more than half by migrating applications to a single platform.

The changes in the software set-up are also intended to reduce the time taken to perform database set-ups or locks, thus speeding up decision making and access to information.

According to AstraZeneca, improved data management contributes to " significant" cost savings and operational efficiencies that are redirected into core research and development activities.