Conversation with Teva Pharmaceuticals

Investigations Insider conversation with Kate Veit, VP Global Compliance and Ethics, Teva Pharmaceuticals

Kyle Thompson: I'm Kyle Thompson, a director in KPMG's Investigations, Disputes and Compliance Network. I have Kate Veit, VP Global Compliance and Ethics, at Teva Pharmaceuticals with me. Today we're talking about investigations and on-call services. Kate, welcome. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Kate Veit: All right. Thanks. Yeah. So I'm currently VP of global compliance. I run our investigations program, which at Teva, we call our Office of Business Integrity, and I'm also responsible for our global monitoring program. Most recently, I was asked to design and run a new program office, which will also incorporate other global compliance programs into the group under my leadership, including things like transparency, FMV policies, etc.

Kyle Thompson: Can you provide an overview of your investigations program?

Kate Veit: So at Teva, our investigations program is known as the Office of Business Integrity. And the reason why we're branded that way is to let employees know that there's a dedicated unit of full-time investigators that are there to review and assess their concerns, and do investigations in a very confidential way. We generally follow a six-step process in our investigations. And I say generally, because if you've ever done investigations, you will know that no two cases are ever the same. So we really look at each allegation and the unique set of circumstances that come along with that, the people, the business, background, everything, and we treat each case uniquely while trying to follow a general process. I've got a team of five, I've got investigators that have varied skill sets, a few have forensic accounting investigations background. And another investigator was with the FBI for over 20 years.

So I've got a really strong team of investigators that make the work very high quality and well-respected. And one of the things I really strive to achieve in doing the investigations for Teva is to work as confidentially as possible and be as least disruptive to our business as possible. We like to do our investigations very discreetly, very confidentially, without creating a lot of drama and without kicking up a lot of dust. And I think that that's very well-respected by senior management at my company. They really respect the work that my team has been doing for the last seven to eight years. And in my experience in doing investigations in other roles and in other companies, I've never had an investigations program be so well run for so long, and so well-respected after this much time. So I'm really pleased with that.

Kyle Thompson: There's certainly been significant change with regards to the environment we're operating in, increased remote working, changes in regulatory priorities and other factors. Can you tell me a little bit about how you view investigations in this context, and are there certain risks or priorities for you?

Kate Veit: Sure. So, at the beginning of this last year when COVID started and really changed the way we were working, I assumed that we may see a decrease in allegations or reports of misconduct since most people are not in the office and maybe not witnessing as much or interacting as much, but to the contrary, we are at a steady rate, if not an increased rate of concerns that have come through. So I think the challenges that we face in investigating these issues is the lack of ability to go onsite, collect information. So we have to rely more heavily on local resources than we would be normally comfortable doing. And then conducting interviews, ideally we like to do those in person, but with no travel in place, we have to compromise the ideal way of doing things and do them via video. And then also just not being able to respond as fast. With these obstacles in place and these different ways of working, we're not as fast as we used to be. So, that has really changed the way we work and has required us to get flexible and creative.

Kyle Thompson: That's great to hear. So, Kate, that's pretty much all I have for you today. Thank you so much for taking the time. We value our relationship with Teva and look forward to continuing to work together. But before we leave, do you have one piece of advice or recommendation for our viewers?

Kate Veit: One piece of advice that I would give the viewers is that if you're running an investigations program, one, don't get so hung up on KPIs and timelines. Like I said at the beginning of this interview, treat each case on its own merit. Don't rush through an investigation just to meet a deadline, really take the time to evaluate each case on its own merit. And also don't underestimate the value of engaging a third party to assist you. It may seem like maybe it's going to be expensive or maybe it doesn't seem like an efficient way, you'd rather just do it yourself, I can't express enough the value that a firm like KPMG can bring to the table with their local resources and their ability to plow through things even faster than you would expect. So keep an open mind, stay flexible, especially with the year we had behind us, with COVID. Stay flexible and stay open-minded to engagements like this because the value and the return is immeasurable in my view.

Kyle Thompson: Kate, thank you so much for taking the time with us today. We really value our relationship with Teva and look forward to continuing and working together in the future.

Kate Veit: Thank you, it's my pleasure. And thanks for all you do.