About

Roche Farma Peru’s legal and compliance department was created in 2015 with an approach focused on creating more access in order to deliver Roche’s products and health services to more patients. ‘We are establishing ourselves as business partners, working with other areas on shaping the environment in order to improve our health system’, says legal manager and compliance officer Sandra Documet, who manages a team of two lawyers and one intern. Other members of the team include the compliance coordinator Jose Antonio Bonifaz – who oversees day-to-day activities including contract management – and legal assistant Geanella Romero. Romero provides assistance on the drafting of contacts and supports support with queries, as well as performing daily follow up activities of new laws and regulations. Rodrigo Contreras, a legal trainee, gives support to the team in order to analyse data regarding monitoring activities. Placing a large deal of importance on compliance, during the last four years the legal team has made every employee of the business aware of compliance and its principles. ‘This has taken years of dedicated training, coaching and difficult conversations with both employees and their bosses’, says Documet. As the first ever legal and compliance team in the affiliate, it had to start from scratch, enforcing global and local policies where there was previously no enforcement. ‘Changing the mind-set of 140 people was never going to be easy’, admits Documet, ‘but it’s safe to say that over time, we have become a compliance-oriented affiliate and the department has established itself as a reliable and efficient business partner, one that is regularly and freely consulted by its internal clients and included in every business decision. This is one of our pillars and our guarantee to operate’. In late 2017, the department negotiated the redevelopment of the company’s commercial scheme with its distributor, one of the country’s biggest companies. These negotiations and the resulting distribution contract helped to avoid potential competition risks as well as to incur yearly savings of approximately US$1m, providing a greater degree of flexibility and independence when negotiating with direct customers.