Cognos's flagship business intelligence software has been selected by U.K.-based biotechnology company Acambis to help manage its spending plans.

Acambis, which makes vaccines including a new one against the West Nile Virus, said it was using Cognos 8 Business Intelligence (BI) to ensure that it was optimizing its investment in research and development.

"The pharmaceutical industry is seeing rising R&D costs, which means companies such as Acambis are looking for ways to identify cost savings and improve business process," said Bill Stevens, Cognos's associate vice-president of life sciences marketing.

"Acambis, with its expertise in vaccine development, paired with Cognos's leading performance management solutions, will enable better decision-making to address its specific needs and keep the competitive edge required to succeed."

Acambis already uses Cognos's financial planning solution, which helps the company forecast and manage its internal resources, including cash, people and revenues. Cognos 8 BI will be integrated with Cognos Planning to help Acambis measure key performance metrics against these forecasts, identify trends, and spot anomalies.