Adobe helps AstraZeneca streamline global document processes.

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) has announced that AstraZeneca will adopt Adobe Acrobat software to streamline and standardize its global internal and external communications. AstraZeneca, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, has agreed to purchase 50,000 software licenses of Acrobat, initially for its UK, US and Swedish operations.

Acrobat will improve the pharmaceutical giant's ability to integrate electronic documents into its core business processes and deliver more accurate and secure audit trails for tracking amendments. Employees in 108 countries can create, share, review and archive files in the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), the de facto standard for reliable electronic document management.

Integrated into AstraZeneca's existing Documentum Document Management Systems, Acrobat will enable staff to collaborate on documents that reside on the central file servers. The ability to create PDF files will enable smoother external communications with globally-based regulatory agencies, suppliers and distributors.

"With most new drugs subject to a ten to 15-year development cycle, and requiring collaboration from scientists and key business stakeholders around the world, it's critical for AstraZeneca to maintain tight control over all documentation," said Thomas Ehrnstrohm, AstraZeneca's Director of Global IS Strategy. "Acrobat will make it far easier to manage external communications by allowing us to maintain precise, secure records of all correspondence with regulatory bodies, partners, customers and patients.

"Acrobat also enables simultaneous, shared access to files and will make it much easier for the company to track documents as they progress through the lengthy regulatory review process," said Ehrnstrohm.