Cognizant announced that its Shared Investigator Platform (SIP), a life sciences Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that streamlines clinical trials to improve the speed of pharmaceutical drug discovery, has surpassed 250,000 users across 100 countries worldwide. This digital platform facilitates research and collaboration around the globe by allowing clinical study documents and safety notifications to be easily and securely exchanged across site and sponsor teams.
SIP was established in 2016 as part of a joint effort between Cognizant and TransCelerate, a consortium of the world’s largest biopharmaceutical organizations, to standardize clinical trial documents, training, and start-up activities into a single shared environment to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Today, SIP is in use by 7 of the largest global biopharmaceutical companies, including Merck. Currently in operation at over 32,000 trial-ready sites, SIP’s utilization has increased by more than 65% in the last two years.
“As one of the original sponsors using the platform, we’re pleased to see SIP reach this growth milestone,” said Jennifer Sheller, Clinical Trial Operations at Merck Research Laboratories. “We look forward to the continued evolution of the platform, with the collective aim of improving efficiency by reuse of commonly requested site information across sponsors and securing access to Good Clinical Practice (GCP) required documents via SIP.”
SIP has been crucial in connecting clinical trial sponsors and research sites, leveraging automation and remote access technology. In one recent example, SIP helped reduce feasibility questionnaire completion times by 36%, allowing clinical trials to begin more quickly and thereby helping accelerate the time to market for new therapeutics.* In addition to commercial enterprise, government organizations, including the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), have praised SIP for its approach to life sciences research.
“NIHR is supportive of using streamlined technology to promote and place research across the health and care system for the benefit of patients,” said Dr Ginette Hoare, Industry Operations Manager at NIHR Clinical Research Network North Thames. “At NIHR Local Clinical Research Network North Thames, we feel it is important to support our National Health Service research sites to develop their structures and profiles, within platforms such as SIP, to increase their visibility to commercial sponsors, streamline clinical research processes and to maximize the potential opportunities to participate in commercial contract research.”
“As the world continues to fight new disease outbreaks, the ability for Biopharmaceutical and Clinical and Academic Research organizations to collaborate virtually has become more important than ever,” said Surya Gummadi, Cognizant’s SVP of Global Health Sciences and SVP, Americas. “The speed and efficiency that SIP enables is critical in reducing administrative burdens and expediting the pace at which new life-saving therapies can be brought to market. Cognizant is proud to be a leader in helping the biopharmaceutical industry leverage new technologies, including the cloud, to advance drug discovery and support global health needs.”