AstraZeneca launches Clinical Data and Insights division in India

AstraZeneca India has launched a Clinical Data and Insights (CDI) division in India to further strengthen its global presence, and for the management of data-related aspects of its clinical trials. The CDI team in Bengaluru, India, is a critical advancement to support a growing global portfolio and build on internal data expertise, the company informed via a statement today.

The statement further said that reporting into Development Operations in Biopharmaceuticals R&D, the CDI team is responsible for the management of data-related aspects of AstraZeneca’s clinical trials, excluding analysis and reporting. CDI division works across therapy areas and portfolios, supporting early and late-stage clinical programmes from phase-I to phase-III with an integrated end-to-end approach for clinical data, analytics, insights and risk management. Currently, a 30-member team, the division is expected to grow to a more than 100-member strong team by 2022.

Commenting on the launch of the CDI, Siva Padmanabhan, Managing Director, AstraZeneca India, said, “The role of GCCs in the overall growth of the parent organisation is witnessing a shift. Over the last decade, GCCs in India are undertaking more strategic and transformative work critical to the success of the organisation. India has seen a constant uptick in investment in areas such as business services, engineering, digital, IT, R&D and product development from global Fortune-500 companies. AstraZeneca in India is no different – since its inception, it has supported the global organisation with various services spanning IT, business services and R&D from our centres in Chennai and Bengaluru, on transformative projects. AstraZeneca’s decision to set up the CDI division in India is only a natural progression of this to further capitalise on the extensive talent pool in the country.”

AstraZeneca CDI’s current footprint includes more than 400 employees and approximately 700 data-management professionals in vendor partnerships across six countries. They are now embedding data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) across R&D centres to enable their data teams to push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines.

Commenting on setting up a CDI division in India, Natalie Fishburn, Vice President and Global Head, CDI, AstraZeneca, said, “Clinical data and insight solutions enable pharmaceutical organisations such as ours to gain in-depth visibility into the patient’s journey by extracting actionable insights from disparate data sources. The establishment of the CDI division in India is key to our strategic vision of being industry leaders in this space. The way in which we manage data is evolving, and we are growing and expanding our capabilities to be ready for the future. In addition, the fact that the Indian market has grown significantly by offering a large talent pool, many of whom have over 10 years of experience, has further motivated us to set up this division in India.”