Cognizant Expands Collaboration with the Biopharma Industry Firm Gilead, Estimated Deal size at $800 Million

Cognizant announced the extension of its partnership with biopharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences for another five years, including the renewal and expansion of Cognizant's services, for a total projected value of $800 million. The NASDAQ-listed IT firm will manage Gilead's global IT infrastructure, platforms, applications, and advanced analytics, as well as lead initiatives to accelerate the company's digital transformation, under the terms of the agreement.

According to its exchange filing, this collaboration will streamline various parts of Gilead's company with the goal of reducing the time to market of various medicines for life-threatening diseases such as HIV, viral hepatitis, and cancer. Gilead has been working with Cognizant for more than three years to implement technologies designed to run business operations, launch new products, and improve IT processes for research, manufacturing, and commercialization of its products, according to the release.

Cognizant intends to use Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and AI automation to enhance Gilead's customer service experience and to help it drive greater manufacturing efficiencies. "Gilead's GenAI advances should enable the company to provide greater visibility and transparency about its treatments to patients and internal employees worldwide." Gilead will use Cognizant's Neuro IT service for AI automation innovation, which should help Gilead bring products to market more quickly, according to the release.

"Our teams will collaborate to bring Gilead's 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.