>Novo Nordisk has been actively implementing an outsourcing strategy as a cost-cutting measure and already has number of such agreements in place in India.
Analysts estimate that off-shoring parts of clinical trial management can reap in savings of up to 40 per cent of the current cost of capturing data from clinical trials.
These cost-savings are leading to an influx of big pharma companies seeking to outsource various aspects of clinical trials to cost-effective countries such as Asia and India.
As a result, the potential revenue from outsourcing clinical trial management is expected to be around $1 bn (€0.83 bn) in the next five years, according to available estimates.
>TCS recently demonstrated the growth potential in this area, posting total revenues of $2.24 billion in the fiscal year 2004-2005, making it the first Indian IT company to cross the two billion dollar mark. The company expects to double its growth in the next few years.
In the latest deal, TCS will provide a range of data management services that include designing, capturing, and coding of trial data gathered from clinical trials that are run by Novo Nordisk across the globe out of its facility in Mumbai.
"Our deep domain knowledge and data management capabilities ensures that Novo can outsource large groups of trials to a single provider in a low employee cost geographic location to enable greater value creation," said Milind Kamat, head, TCS BPO services.
"Our strategy in TCS is to provide our products, solutions and services across the pharma chain from drug discovery, clinical development, manufacturing, sales and marketing to regulatory services for leading global pharma companies," said J. Rajagopal, executive vice president and head, Global Life Sciences and Healthcare Practice.