Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.

Cognizant, an IT consulting firm, announced it is expanding its existing relationship with biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences to deliver better cost leadership and productivity enhancement for Gilead, while extracting greater value from the existing relationship. Harnessing the power of machine learning and generative AI within an agentic framework, the work deals with multiple use cases across customer service, employee interactions and business value management. Gilead is expected to boost its efficiency through leveraging Cognizant's expertise in AI and advanced technology applications. In a statement, Cognizant said that by deploying these technologies across the value chain, it aims to help Gilead achieve notable benefits via a newly optimized financial framework. Over the last ten years, Cognizant helped back Gilead's global IT infrastructure, platforms, applications and advanced analytics designed to accelerate its digital transformation. The extension of the partnership is aimed at creating capacity allowing Gilead to resume its focus and mission of discovering and supplying critical medicines for cancer, HIV and other diseases. Additionally, expanding on the company's partnership, Cognizant intends to leverage its Neuro AI generative AI platform to assist Gilead in accelerating value creation, enhancing IT and business processes, and improving operational efficiencies. In addition, Cognizant expects to transform the user experience of IT services with custom-built Gen AI solutions that permit Gilead to benefit from greater efficiency and user experience. "Cognizant continues to provide critical expertise as we advance our technology journey," Joydeep Ganguly, senior vice president and head, corporate operations and Interim CIO at Gilead, said in a statement. "The expansion of this partnership is pivotal in accelerating our capabilities roadmap while driving a new level of cost leadership across our technology programs. This collaboration aims to bring innovative changes to Gilead's business, exploring new possibilities and enhancing our operations in novel ways." Surya Gummadi, executive vice president and president of Cognizant Americas, said his company is excited to expand its partnership in a new dimension with Cognizant with the aim of delivering transformative treatments globally. "Our teams will work together to transform user engagement, and boost productivity and cost savings for Gilead to focus on the critical work they do around preventing and treating life-threatening illnesses," Gummadi said in a statement. THE LARGER TREND Also this month, Cognizant and CrowdStrike announced a strategic partnership to drive enterprise security transformation by delivering cybersecurity services, powered by the AI-native CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity platform. Cognizant will work to enable organizations to streamline security operations and threat mitigation, consolidate fragmented legacy point products, reduce the complexity of managing cybersecurity programs, and strengthen cybersecurity posture, leveraging Falcon Next-Gen SIEM and Falcon Cloud Security. Last year saw a worldwide IT outage after a misconfigured CrowdStrike Falcon update was pushed to Windows, causing millions of computers to show the infamous "blue screen of death." The outage disrupted care delivery at hospitals, health systems and medical practices in the U.S., U.K., Israel, Germany and other countries. Clinicians were forced to work manually to provide patient care in the absence of access to electronic health records and other mission-critical IT systems. Earlier this month, Gilead Sciences and LEO Pharma announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the development and commercialization of LEO Pharma’s small molecule oral STAT6 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 6) programs for the potential treatment of patients with inflammatory diseases. Under the partnership, Gilead will acquire LEO Pharma’s comprehensive preclinical oral STAT6 small molecule inhibitors and targeted protein degraders. Gilead will lead further development efforts for the oral programs, while LEO Pharma will lead development for potential topical formulations of STAT6 inhibitors.

Carl Hull to Retire as Executive ChairmanSAN DIEGO, Dec. 05, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (“Maravai” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: MRVI), a global provider of life science reagents and services to researchers and biotech innovators, announced that Carl Hull will retire from his position as Executive Chairman of the Board and that the Board of Directors has unanimously elected R. Andrew Eckert to succeed him as Chairman of the Board, effective December 5, 2024. Carl Hull founded Maravai in 2014 and served as Chief Executive Officer, assuming the role of Executive Chairman in October 2022. “Leading Maravai has been the single most rewarding experience in my career. I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished together over the past 10 years,” stated Carl Hull. “I extend my sincere thanks to Trey Martin, our CEO, the rest of our leadership team and to the dedicated employees across the world who enthusiastically serve our customers and their communities every day. I am excited about the company’s future prospects and am confident that Maravai has the team, the talent, and the technology to deliver on its long-term objectives.” "On behalf of the entire Board, I thank Carl for his incredible commitment to Maravai since he founded the Company in 2014.” said Constantine (“Dean”) Mihas, Board member and Co-CEO of GTCR. “I congratulate him for his distinguished career and deeply appreciate his vision and unwavering service to building Maravai and positioning the company for long-term success. He has been a model of corporate leadership and integrity in our industry and beyond, and we wish him well in his well-deserved retirement." Mihas continued, “We also want to welcome Andy as our new Chair and Board member. Andy is a healthcare industry veteran with extensive experience as an executive officer of several healthcare companies. He brings deep knowledge of operations, strategic planning, product development and marketing to our Board and has valuable corporate governance insight gained from having served as Chief Executive Officer and Director of publicly held companies. We look forward to leveraging his impressive executive experience to help guide Maravai to achieve significant scale.” “I'm honored to join the Board of Directors at Maravai, a company dedicated to innovation to help our customers improve human health,” said Eckert. “I look forward to contributing to the success and transformative impact of this remarkable organization while concurrently driving long-term shareholder value." About R. Andrew Eckert Mr. Eckert is a Senior Adviser to Permira, a global private equity leader. Prior to Permira, he served as CEO of Zelis, a healthcare payments and cost containment business. Before Zelis, he served as CEO of wound care leader Kinetic Concepts, Inc. (KCI) from 2017 until its sale to 3M in 2019. Prior to joining KCI, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Valence Health, an emerging leader in value-based healthcare, until its sale in 2016. Andy previously served as Chief Executive Officer of TriZetto, a leader in payer information technology (acquired by Cognizant), and as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CRC Health Group, a leading behavioral health treatment provider (acquired by Acadia). Earlier in his career, he was Chief Executive Officer of Eclipsys Corporation from 2005 to 2009, and Chief Executive Officer of SumTotal Systems from 2002 to 2005. Andy began his career at ADAC Laboratories, including four years as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until its sale to Philips Medical Systems in 2000. Andy has served on several corporate boards and is currently the Chairman of Kipu Health, Lead Director at Fortrea (NASDAQ: FTRE), and a Director at Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE: BDX). He was Chairman of Varian Medical Systems for seven years until its acquisition by Siemens Healthineers in 2021. He has a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and a Master of Business Administration, both from Stanford University. About Maravai Maravai is a leading life sciences company providing critical products to enable the development of drug therapies, diagnostics, and novel vaccines and to support research on human diseases. Maravai’s companies are leaders in providing products and services in the fields of nucleic acid synthesis and biologics safety testing to many of the world's leading biopharmaceutical, vaccine, diagnostics and cell and gene therapies companies. Forward-looking Statements This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release which are not strictly historical statements constitute forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements related to the expectation that Mr. Eckert will help Maravai achieve scale and drive long-term shareholder value, constitute forward-looking statements identified by words like “plan,” “will,” “expect,” “may,” “anticipate,” or “could” and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, including, without limitation, the risks and uncertainties described in greater detail in the “Risk Factors” section of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements, and therefore you should not rely upon them. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views and we do not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect a change in its views or events or circumstances that occur after the date hereof except as required by law.

As novel therapeutics become more complex and costly to bring to market, drug developers are looking to unified clinical development platforms to streamline operations, from study startup to regulatory submissions, enhancing efficiency and data consistency. Adopting a Unified Clinical Platform is not just a technological upgrade; its a strategic imperative, says Kavitha Lokesh, Vice President, Global Head for Life Sciences R&D Industry Solutions Group at Cognizant. In an industry where every day counts, streamlining processes allows pharma companies to bring life-saving treatments to market fast, while reducing operating costs and ensuring the highest standards for patient safety and engagement.But IT organizations that handle managed services for maintenance, support and enhancement of the unified clinical platform must answer a key question: Should managed services for unified clinical development align with the product-centric BizDepOps model, or a centralized Center of Excellent (CoE) model? Both approaches have their respective benefits, and drug developers must weigh the pros and cons of each to find the most optimal approach for the organizations needs. Here, well discuss the key differences between the two, and how IT organizations can find the optimal approach for their needs.Product-centric BizDevOps models prioritize business goal alignmentA product-centered approach, as the name suggests, puts product first. Each teams goals are aligned, first and foremost, to the specific needs and business objectives around business process value streams, such as clinical operations or safety operations. Its a mindset shift that emphasizes customer value and continuous improvement, explains Kavitha. And it allows organizations to transform traditional cost drivers, such as IT, into measurable value-adds for the organization.The product-centric model enhances focus on specific product lines, fostering deeper specialization and closer alignment with business needs, which can drive innovation and tailored solutions for each product area. However, deploying this model well is resource-intensive. It requires organizations to split their subject matter experts (SMEs) across multiple product-oriented teams. And it requires effective cross-team collaboration to ensure alignment and accountability. To succeed in a product-centric BizDevOps model, IT organizations should focus on mapping and optimizing value streams, says Kavitha. Identify and map out all value streams within the organization, so you can visualize the entire process, identify bottlenecks, and streamline workflows to ensure continuous value delivery, as well as define KPIs for the value stream and product lines she advises.IT organizations should also focus on continuous improvement to keep driving value, she notes. Successfully establishing a product-centric aligned model for Unified Clinical Development platform managed services requires establishing clear roles and responsibilities, fostering integrated communication channels, and maintaining a strong customer-centric approach, she says. Additionally, continuous training and development, along with robust data management strategies, are key to driving efficiency and innovation across the product lines.CoE models offer specialized expertise and consistent supportThe CoE model offers a centralized alternative to product-centric BizDevOps value streams that allows IT Organizations to cross-utilize SMEs across multiple products. Centralized experts within the company provide thought leadership and support across the organization. This helps in optimizing resources, since IT organizations can leverage experts across multiple projects, and drives excellence and platform level capability. A CoE model also standardizes processes across all product lines, leading to consistent quality and streamlined operations. Standard processes also enable cross-functional collaboration and help to ensure that best practices are uniformly applied, which helps reduce redundancy and improve efficiency. A centralized model, though, requires standardized processes and best practices to succeed. Create templates, guidelines, and frameworks that can be consistently applied to generate the most value from your CoE across multiple projects, advises Raghuraman Sridharan, Practice Leader, Life Sciences R&D EMEA and APJ at Cognizant. In addition, organizing all services into a service catalog-based model sets you up to succeed by enabling predictability and industrialized delivery.Selecting the right approach for your organizationThe right choice between a product-centric BizDecOps and a CoE model depends on the needs of your program. If agility, rapid iteration and capability development for specific business functionality in a unified platform is top of mind, a product-centered model may be the best fit. On the other hand, a CoE model allows you to prioritize efficiency and cost optimization and supports the need to leverage deep expertise and standardize processes. To optimize both efficiency and agility, consider implementing aspects of both approaches. This hybrid model involves setting up a Center of Excellence (CoE) to manage platform-level tasks such as upgrades, validation, and testing of the application after every release, as well as providing support services. The CoE ensures standardized processes, deep expertise, and cost optimization across the organization, while a product-centric model is implemented by aligning platform experts with each product team for product enhancements and continuous innovation. This approach not only leverages the specialized skills within the CoE but also fosters close collaboration between the business and product teams, enhancing both effectiveness and efficiency, Lokesh Kavitha saysHow to succeed with any modelNo matter which model you choose, alignment across stakeholders, both within the organization and across external partners, is critical to succeed. Adopting a product-centered model, in particular, requires top-down education and training that will allow leadership to move swiftly along with product-focused teams. Similarly, IT organizations must develop a well-established playbook that details the roles and responsibilities for internal team, external partners, as well as the implementation framework, business process and best practices, so they are able to provide the required support, Sridharan says. Technology is changing quickly, and being transparent about what you need from external partners helps ensure they support your business objectives and accelerate clinical development.Cognizant offers flexible digital solutions to support each step of clinical development, helping life sciences companies drive efficiencies across the development cycle. Learn more. '