Gilead Sciences selects AWS as preferred cloud provider

The move will enable Gilead to leverage AWS machine learning technologies and analytics to accelerate data-driven decision making across the organisation.

The technologies are expected to support clinical trial recruitment, biomarker discovery and gain new insights to filter its drug pipeline.

As agreed, AWS will also host all workloads for Gilead’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation project to implement SAP S/4HANA.

This involves running business-critical processes in supply chain, finance, operations and commercial sales areas across therapeutic areas and business units on AWS.

It will help in trimming hardware refresh cycles, boost testing and deployment agility and help in improving business planning.

Gilead senior vice-president and chief information officer Marc Berson said: “With AWS as our preferred cloud provider, our researchers can use AWS’s portfolio of services to gain the insights, agility, and security needed to deliver new medicines at speed, and treat the individual according to their unique needs, not just the disease.

“AWS’s performance, infrastructure, and scale are the foundations on which we will complete our ERP transformation and become a more efficient, agile, secure, and data-driven business in the cloud.”

In the last one year, the company has also transferred more than 50% of its data centre footprint to AWS through an accelerated cloud migration programme with AWS Professional Services.

Gilead now plans to move additional applications to AWS including critical ones that support industry good practices (GxP) guidelines and regulations in several areas such as drug manufacturing, storage, and distribution.

Amazon Web Services Sales and Marketing senior vice-president Matt Garman said: “Gilead uses the proven performance of the world’s leading cloud to innovate, scale, and deliver powerful therapies for diseases like HIV and cancer, as well as advance standards for precision medicine.

“By streamlining their IT operations with AWS and taking advantage of our AWS for Health offerings, Gilead has the ability to continuously refine its approach to clinical trials, drug development, manufacturing, and distribution.”