AstraZeneca has announced it has signed a five-year business process outsourcing (BPO) deal worth approximately £47.4 million with Cognizant to streamline its clinical data management.

AstraZeneca, who last year signed a £684 million IT outsourcing deal with IBM, is intending to centralise the management and delivery of the clinical part of its business.

After the systems' transition is complete by the end of this year, AstraZeneca will move into a transformation phase, to optimise and drive further efficiencies from management of key clinical data.