Cognizant expands partnership with the biopharma industry firm Gilead, estimated deal size at $800 million

Cognizant declared the growth of its partnership with biopharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences for an additional five years, which includes renewal and growth of Cognizant's services, for a total projected value of $800 million. Under the deal, the NASDAQ-listed IT firm will manage Gilead’s global IT infrastructure, platforms, applications, and advanced analytics and lead initiatives to accelerate its digital transformation. This collaboration will streamline various parts of Gilead's company with the goal of faster time to market of various medicines for life-threatening diseases, including HIV, viral hepatitis, and cancer, according to its exchange filing.

Gilead has partnered with Cognizant for more than three years now to adopt technologies designed to run business operations, new product launches and improve IT processes for research, manufacturing, and commercialisation of its products, the release said. Cognizant plans to use Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and AI automation to improve Gilead’s customer service experience and assist it in driving greater manufacturing efficiencies.

"The GenAI advances should enable Gilead to provide greater visibility and transparency about the company’s treatments to patients and internal employees globally. Gilead will leverage Cognizant’s Neuro IT service for AI automation innovation, which should help Gilead to bring products to market more efficiently," the release added. "Working together, our teams will be leveraging the latest technologies from automation to cloud computing and Generative AI to help Gilead bring its products to market faster, more efficiently, and with higher customer satisfaction," said Surya Gummadi, executive vice president and president of Cognizant Americas.

The large IT services firms have been frequently announcing large deals over the past few weeks. Last week, Infosys announced a $2 billion AI-led deal with an existing client spread over a period of five years. Also, Infosys announced last month a digital transformation deal with Nordic-based Danske Bank valued at $454 million for a period of five years. The Bengaluru-based software exporter will also acquire the lender’s IT center in Bengaluru, which employs 1,400 people.

Tata Consultancy Services, also in June, announced it had bagged a $1.9 billion deal from UK workplace pension scheme Nest to digitally transform its scheme administration services. Infosys, in May, won a $1.5 billion deal from global energy giant BP for a period of five years. The deal is the largest it has won in the last three years, it said. Cognizant is scheduled to announce its second-quarter results on August 2. In the first quarter, the US-based software exporters’ net profit increased by 3% in the first quarter to $580 million on lower administration costs and a bump in other income. The company also announced a two-year rejig aimed at simplifying the operating model and rationalizing office spaces to the tune of $400 million. Cognizant expects the personnel-related actions of this program to impact lead to the termination of around 3,500 employees, or 1% of its total workforce, who will primarily be non-billable and corporate personnel.