Cognizant and Organon: Speeding the Delivery of Women's Healthcare Products

Cognizant, a global IT company and provider of digital solutions for the health science and pharma industries, recently announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement with Organon, a global pharmaceutical company (originally formed through a spinoff by Merck) that focuses on women’s health and provides more than 60 medicines in areas including reproductive health, dermatology, and more. Through the agreement, Cognizant will help scale Organon’s healthcare business by delivering industrial technology support for Organon’s global pharmaceutical manufacturing sites. The partnership will work to:

• Help improve the company’s delivery of healthcare products and crucial medicinal supply chain management
• Increase real-time visibility of the manufacturing process and ensure pharmaceutical development continuity
• Enhance supply chain oversight, increase medicinal yields, reduce cycle times and get products to patients faster.

To discuss the partnership and how the technology Cognizant is providing will help solve supply chain issues for Organon, Pharma Commerce spoke to Surya Gummadi, Cognizant's SVP of global health sciences and SVP Americas.

Pharma Commerce: Why did Organon turn to Cognizant to improve its delivery of healthcare products and supply chain management?

Surya Gummadi: Cognizant will help scale Organon’s healthcare business by delivering full-stack industrial technology support for the company’s global pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Indonesia. 

This includes managing Organon’s manufacturing systems with SAP’s S/4 HANA enterprise application suite. Additionally, by providing remote and onsite support teams to increase real-time visibility of the manufacturing process and ensure pharmaceutical development continuity, Cognizant will help Organon enhance supply chain oversight, increase medicinal yields, reduce cycle times and get products to patients faster.

What will be Cognizant’s first steps in helping Organon toward its delivery and supply chain goals?

Cognizant will begin with two parallel workstreams.

1. We will provide support teams within those four major pharmaceutical manufacturing factories. This will provide local resources, who speak the local language, to support the shop floor manufacturing and lab systems.
2. In parallel, we will also stand up a remote team to support the global systems such as S/4 HANA.

How does Cognizant aim to increase real-time visibility of the manufacturing process and ensure development continuity?

For Organon, technology is a key pillar of differentiation in fulfilling the mission of becoming the world’s leading women’s health company. With local and global project teams, Cognizant will continue to enhance Organon’s connectivity journey—connecting local and global systems.

How will you enhance supply chain oversight?

Similarly, the continuing connectivity journey of connecting the shop floor systems to global systems such as S/4 HANA will provide near real time information about the supply chain and the progress of medicinal products through the manufacturing facilities.

What is the global reach of the partnership and where are the areas of priority?

The reach of the partnership is truly global, with its four major pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in Europe and Indonesia. The technology priorities focus on Organon’s manufacturing systems with SAP’s S/4 HANA enterprise application suite.

How will Cognizant work with Organon on the ground at different locations to achieve the partnership’s goals?

Growing local teams, with the right skills and the local language, will be critical to achieving the partnership goals. The blend of local and global teams to support the manufacturing systems will bring benefits in terms of quality and total cost of service.

We expect that the unique insights and understanding that will come from working inside the factory with Organon staff will drive a heightened level of overall service excellence and help Cognizant meet or exceed the goals of the partnership.