AstraZeneca, Cognizant Announce a Five-Year Deal; Expand Their Global Services Partnership

AstraZeneca, Cognizant Announce a Five-Year Deal; Expand Their Global Services
Partnership

New global services agreement covers a wide range of application services for
AstraZeneca's Research, Clinical Development and Sales and Marketing functions

TEANECK, N.J. and LONDON, Oct. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cognizant (Nasdaq:
CTSH), a leading provider of consulting, technology and business process
outsourcing services, today announced a five-year agreement with AstraZeneca
to provide application maintenance services to AstraZeneca's global enterprise
in the business-critical areas of research, clinical development, and sales
and marketing. The agreement will further expand Cognizant's long-standing
relationship with the pharmaceutical major.

Under the expanded agreement, Cognizant will work with AstraZeneca's Global
Shared Services organization and implement world class, end-to-end application
maintenance services. As part of this innovative agreement, Cognizant will
adopt an "Outcome" or "Effect-based" model to provide these services by
leveraging its global delivery network, talent pool and best practices. This
will ensure a predictable service model, reduce the overall cost of IT
ownership, and deliver year-over-year efficiency improvements.

"Our strategic partnerships will enable us to streamline operations
efficiency, raise standards and deliver world-class services. The selection of
Cognizant will allow us to leverage their global operations to meet the needs
of our business and increase our focus on our core business -- to make the
most meaningful difference to patient health through great medicines," said
Richard Williams, Global CIO at AstraZeneca.

"We are pleased to have been selected by AstraZeneca's global shared services
organization to provide application-related services," said Francisco D'Souza,
President and CEO of Cognizant. "We look forward to helping AstraZeneca
identify and deploy operational improvements in its applications process that
will enhance R&D and sales and marketing efficiencies, and help strengthen and
extend the company's leadership status in the global life sciences industry."

About Cognizant's Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice
Cognizant's Healthcare and Life Sciences practice is committed to helping
change billions of lives for the better by partnering with our customers to
build solutions to healthcare challenges, continually improve the way they do
business, set the pace in clinical development, strengthen their regulatory
infrastructure, and increase competitiveness.

Consistently ranked among the Healthcare Informatics Top 100 list for the past
three years, we have worked with 6 of the top 10 health plans in the U.S.A.,
27 of the top 30 global pharmaceutical companies, 9 of the top 10 biotech
companies, and 2 of the top 5 medical device companies.

With over 10,000 dedicated professionals including doctors, pharmacologists,
physicians, biomedical engineers, pharmacists, biostatisticians, medical
writers, and GxP consultants, we provide domain-aligned consulting, IT,
business process and analytics solutions globally.

About AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in research,
development, manufacturing and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and
supplier for healthcare services. AstraZeneca is one of the world's leading
pharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of US $29.55 billion and is a
leader in gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory,
oncology and infection product sales. AstraZeneca is listed in the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index (Global) as well as the FTSE4Good Index. For more
information, visit www.astrazeneca.com.

About Cognizant
Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology,
consulting and business process outsourcing services. Cognizant's
single-minded passion is to dedicate our global technology and innovation
know-how, our industry expertise and worldwide resources to working together
with clients to make their businesses stronger. With more than 40 global
delivery centers and over 59,000 employees as of June 30, 2008, we combine a
unique onsite/offshore delivery model infused by a distinct culture of
customer satisfaction. A member of the NASDAQ-100 Index and S&P 500 Index,
Cognizant is a Forbes Global 2000 company and a member of the Fortune 1000 and
is ranked among the top information technology companies in BusinessWeek's Hot
Growth and Top 50 Performers listings. Visit us online at www.cognizant.com

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes statements which may constitute forward-looking
statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which are
necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as to future
events that may not prove to be accurate. Factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those expressed or implied include general
economic conditions and the factors discussed in our most recent Form 10-K and
other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cognizant
undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

SOURCE Cognizant

Alan Alper, Corporate Marketing and Communications, Cognizant,
+1-201-658-9041, alan.alper@cognizant.com