Cognizant has announced that it had been selected by TransCelerate BioPharma, 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 for clinical trials.

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, companies can run 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 improve quality, regulatory compliance, process visibility, and capacity, while reducing investigator efforts related to training, document exchange, and support.

"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 Mr Jackie Kent, senior director, clinical development information and optimization, Eli Lilly 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," he added.

"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 Mr Bhaskar Sambasivan, VP of Cognizant's lifesciences division. He added, "Streamlining the clinical trial process will enable TransCelerate's member companies to not only speed up drug development, but also drive innovation to improve patient health. We are making significant commitment and investment in this strategic relationship, and will leverage our industry expertize 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."