Mumbai: IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has entered into a partnership with global healthcare group Roche under which the two will undertake programmes to advance the pharma giant''s global capacity building initiative.

The programme will cover a number of areas in Roche''s development organisation, including clinical data management, clinical programming, bio-statistics and drug safety support, TCS said in a release.

This new initiative will provide services to a number of areas in Roche''s development organization, including clinical data management, clinical programming, biostatistics and drug safety support. The aim of the collaboration between TCS and Roche is to create a flexible, scalable and high-quality partnership to support the demands of Roche''s increasing drug pipeline.

Jean-Jacques Garaud, global head of pharma development at Roche, said, "For Roche, it was key to find the best partner for our GCBI initiative and the collaboration with TCS is the result of an extensive international search. The partnership with TCS will allow us to address the growing operational needs of our development organisation and to handle the increasing workload".

"The aim of the collaboration between TCS and Roche is to create a flexible, scalable and high-quality partnership to support the demands of Roche''s increasing drug pipeline," the release said.

Roche''s global capacity-building initiative, based in Mumbai, consists of a team of pharmacologists, physicians, bio-statisticians, pharmacists and informatics specialists.

The partnership will help Roche leverage the extensive talent pool in India, maximise synergies and gain ongoing cost and process improvements, while maintaining high quality and service levels.

"The global capacity building initiative with Roche is another validation of TCS'' strategy to focus on services supporting the drug development processes and the investments made in building our domain competencies in this area," J Rajagopal, executive vice president and global head of life sciences amd healthcare division of TCS, said.

TCS will be working closely with Roche and contribute its strong domain expertise, talent management skills, flexible operating models, transition capabilities and performance-driven processes to the initiative.

The life sciences and healthcare practice at TCS has over 3,200 professionals, including pharmacologists, physicians, biomedical engineers, biostatisticians, ICH / GCP compliance professionals, GxP consultants, PhDs, IT architects, consultants and management graduates who were focused on providing best in class IT consulting, solutions and services to life sciences and healthcare customers across the world.

Roche, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, is one of the world''s top research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. The world''s biggest biotech company, Roche is an innovator of products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

"For Roche, it was key to find the best partner for our GCBI initiative and the collaboration with TCS is the result of an extensive international search. The partnership with TCS will allow us to address the growing operational needs of our development organisation and to handle the increasing workload," Jean-Jacques Garaud, global head of pharma development at Roche, said.

Roche is the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics and drugs for cancer and transplantation, a market leader in virology and active in other major therapeutic areas such as autoimmune diseases, inflammation, metabolism and central nervous system. In 2006 sales by the pharmaceuticals division totalled CHF 33.3 billion, and the diagnostics division posted sales of CHF 8.7 billion.

Roche employs roughly 75,000 people worldwide and has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai. Roche commenced operations in the US over 100 years ago and these operations include research and development centers that conduct leading-edge work in advancing disease detection and treatment.

Its diagnostics and pharmaceuticals businesses in the US employ more than 20,000 people and generate approximately $10 billion in sales (including Genentech), accounting for about 40 per cent of the Roche group''s global annual revenues.