(01/24/05)—Pfizer Inc. is outsourcing high-end business processes in clinical data management and biometrics to Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., an offshore outsourcing company based in Teaneck, New Jersey, with operations in India.
Pfizer Global Research and Development, through its Indian affiliate, announced the multiyear business process outsourcing relationship on Monday. Cognizant will provide database design, data management, programming and clinical communication or medical writing as part of the deal.
Cognizant is initially committing 90 people to the Pfizer project, the bulk of whom will be staff holding bachelor's and master's degrees in pharmacy, statistics and analytics, according to a company spokesman. The staff will initially work out of Pfizer's facility in Mumbai, though in about six months they will be moved to Cognizant's facility being set up in the city, the spokesman added.
The India Biometrics Division in Mumbai of New York-based Pfizer has been providing data capture, data management, statistics and programming services for its parent's Phase I, II and III global clinical trials for the last seven years. This division currently has about 70 staff.
A part of the work done by the India Biometrics Division will now get outsourced to Cognizant, according to a spokeswoman at Pfizer India.
Cognizant has extensive experience in life sciences including clinical trial study set-up and validation and data management, compliant with international standards as defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Hocine Sidi Said, country manager of Pfizer India in a statement.
A number of Indian outsourcing companies are now focusing on the health-care and biological IT segments with an eye to bagging both software development and high-end business from pharmaceutical companies.