Cognizant joins forces with Zenith to digitise pharma manufacturing

Professional services firm Cognizant has struck a deal to buy Zenith Technologies, a privately-held life sciences manufacturing technology company specialising in digital technologies to manage, control and optimise drug and medical device production. Cognizant, which said it already works with the top 30 largest life science companies in the world, did not reveal the financial details of the deal to buy Zenith, based in Cork, Ireland. Under the new arrangements Zenith Technologies’ more than 800 employees will become part of Cognizant’s Life Sciences business unit. Cognizant said that interconnected “smart factories” have become a strategic priority for pharma, with production systems and processes becoming more complex because of research advances and increased demand for large-molecule biologics. The combined Cognizant-Zenith Technologies expertise will deliver a range of “Industry 4.0” capabilities, the companies said. These include factory design consultation, machine sensor and controller instrumentation, supervisory control, and data acquisition, to manufacturing execution systems, batch automation, enterprise resource planning integration and managed services.