Pfizer's Global Security department, one of 11 different practice groups within the pharmaceutical company's worldwide Legal Division, had a problem. Charged with protecting the company's products from fraudulent imitations, thefts and other threats, Global Security needed an efficient system for tracking suspected counterfeit and stolen drugs, while expediting lab testing, ensuring accurate chain-of-custody documentation and automating appropriate - and secure - information sharing.
“At the core of the counterfeiting problem is, first and foremost, consumer health and safety,” says Mary Ann Sarao, a director in the Legal Division's Global Security group. Her department adapted and implemented Mitratech's TeamConnect software to address its specialized needs.
FIGHTING FAKES
Counterfeiting of popular pharmaceutical products is a growing problem. Sarao explains that fake drugs have occasionally shown up on the shelves of legitimate drugstores in the last few years. Often the imitations are made of inert materials and contain no active ingredients, rendering them worthless and perhaps even dangerous. Sometimes the fakes are discovered only when users notice that pills look different from those in their previous prescriptions. In other cases, law enforcement agencies intercept caches of stolen or phony pharmaceuticals.
“In one day, Pfizer Global Security could be notified about a counterfeit product that has been seized by customs in China, a suspicious building fire at one of our manufacturing plants, and a hacker who has attempted to enter one of our servers. These are the matters Global Security needs to manage. As we investigate such events, they in turn may become intellectual property matters, corporate insurance matters or litigation matters,” Sarao says, pointing out the need for flexible software for information sharing and communication with other affected practices. Sarao worked with Mitratech to build a tool for tracking intelligence and counterfeiting which incorporates an innovative evidence module.
Pfizer's Legal Division selected Mitratech's TeamConnect as its matter management software during summer 2004. Its 40-person Global Security department became the first practice group to implement the application. Previously, Pfizer's legal teams had employed a mixture of homegrown and off-the-shelf applications, Sarao reports.
AN “AH-HA” MOMENT
Sarao describes “a true ‘ah-ha' moment” in which she discovered the potential for streamlining workflow and increasing efficiency and information sharing using the web-based TeamConnect package.
“While receiving early training on TeamConnect, I learned how it could easily move matter information through a workflow in a secured environment. At that moment, I knew instead of building a separate evidence management database, as we had planned, we could integrate the evidence between global security and our labs in the U.S., China and the U.K. As I further explored this possibility, I realized that another group in legal could benefit from an evidence module,” she says.
To demonstrate the TeamConnect application's flexibility and ease of use, Sarao provides a hypothetical example: imagine that a lot comprising 10,000 counterfeit pills was manufactured in China. The pills were then shipped via Belize to Miami, where law enforcement seized them, before they could reach their intended destination of San Diego. Thanks to the customizations of the TeamConnect screens, Pfizer Global Security would be able to document and track the suspect tablets' full history, along their migratory route, showing raids, seizures, arrests, lab testing, chain of custody and other stages of investigation and prosecution.
The software enables staffers to send email alerts automatically to key players in investigations, store and analyze information, link new cases with older matters, and identify repeat offenders. With the new reporting capability, Sarao states, the staff can now send evidence they've gathered to fellow investigators who use it to analyze and validate other information, enabling the entire group to be more data-driven. This in turn allows them to issue alerts, share evidence and initiate criminal investigations and prosecutions more rapidly.
Sarao is pleased with the enhanced efficiency since implementing TeamConnect in Global Security. “We've saved five different steps,” while maintaining due diligence, she reports. TeamConnect's capability and versatility, Sarao affirms, are “only limited by your imagination. TeamConnect can be configured to meet your organizational demands, whether you have a small law firm or a corporate legal department with 11 practice groups worldwide. You can use TeamConnect to build efficiencies, share information and secure your matters.”