Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare

The pharmaceuticals and healthcare practice within Shahid Law Firm is one of the cornerstones of our Firm’s practice areas. Our success has been continuously building upon our professional relations with various major international companies in the field, as well as key Egyptian authorities.

The firm has been described in the Chamber and Partners guide for 2016 as being ‘[with] notable experience serving companies in the pharmaceutical […] sector’.

Our clients include some of the most prominent players in the industry, and span across pharmaceutical manufacturers, drug retailers, medical groups, professional associations, third-party administrators, and various healthcare authorities.

The pharma business model in Egypt is complex and multifaceted with numerous producers, distributors, agents, and scientific offices. Over its history, Shahid Law Firm has dealt with all of those parties, and have assisted them in contentious as well as non-contentious matters, preserving their rights, acting for their favor, and helping them keep a seamless business movement.

Clients that benefitted from Shahid Law Firm’s assistance include: Abbott Laboratories, AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Roche, Roche Diagnostics, Pfizer, Sanofi, Sun Pharma, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Unicharm Corporation, Reckitt Benckiser, and Gilead Sciences.

Our areas of specialization include:

• Drafting and opining on agency and distribution, manufacturing under license and supply agreements on behalf of the principle;
• Drafting and reviewing lease contracts for lands, administrative premises, and other property as well as assisting with registration procedures;
• Advising on regulatory and compliance matters and dealings with the Egyptian Ministry of Health;
• Advising on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), restructuring, due diligence, and other affiliation transactions;
• Advising on matters related to intellectual property, public policy and anti-competition practices;
• Assisting in obtaining the necessary licenses and permits, and IPR related registrations across a variety of jurisdictions;
• Handling litigation and arbitration cases;
• Handling corporate secretarial and labor matters; and
• Advising on other relevant areas of the law that are of particular interest to the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector.

Currently, Shahid Law Firm is strongly involved in advising on the legal matters surrounding the local production of a world-renowned Hepatitis C medicine.

The firm has also successfully lobbied for change in the MoH’s practice, and for the adoption of a clear importation structure.

As part of its engagement, Shahid Law Firm drafts and reviews agreements and memorandum of understanding (MoUs) as well as provides advise to local producers on legal aspects of the manufacturing process related to healthcare compliance practices, supply agreements, toll manufacturing, registration, and licensing.

Shahid Law Firm’s involvement in the Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare industry includes:

• Acting as a local counsel for GSK in its multi-billion dollars asset trading deal with Novartis, considered to be reshaping the pharmaceutical industry globally;
• Acting as local counsel for fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, Abbott, and AbbVie in their global business split;
• Advising Abbott, Eli Lilly and GSK on various matters relating to privacy, competition and anti-corruption under Egyptian law;
• Advising producers of healthcare products Reckitt Benckiser and Unicharm on negotiating commercial agreements with Egyptian distributors; and on drafting and reviewing their contracts with outsourcers, contractors and service providers; and
• Reviewing a number of agreements for local pharmaceutical companies with regard to the local manufacturing of a Hepatitis C medication.

Also, the Firm handles dispute resolution, litigation, and arbitration cases for a number of clients in the industry. Examples of which are:

• Assisting two major pharmaceutical companies in lifting an attachment imposed on their accounts in multiple banks, based on a claimed real estate taxes dues amounting to millions of EGP. Shahid Law Firm was capable of the lifting of the attachments, which was successfully accomplished in a particularly speedy manner within a few days’ time;
• Representing an international pharma giant in a claim to pay over EGP 50 million to a local distribution company on the background of an alleged breach of contract;
• Steering settlements and handling claims between multiple international pharmaceutical companies and their local distributors and agents within the context of dispute resolution;
• Representing Abbott, GSK and multiple pharma companies on a number of litigation cases before various Egyptian courts;
• Representing a leading pharma company before the Administrative Court in a case on the exclusive marketing of a patented molecule; and also in a case involving the alleged death of a consumer after the case of death has been presumably attributed to the consumption of one of the company’s products; and
• Representing GSK in a lawsuit filed against the Minister of Finance for the Tax Authority’s demand that GSK pays under EGP one million in stamp duties.

Our firm has also been involved in a number of M&A transactions within the pharma industry such as:

• Representing a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company in its contemplated acquisition of a local company in a deal valued at between US$ 50 million to US$ 70 million;
• Acting as a local counsel for GSK in the acquisition of the business of Bristol Myers Squibb in a US$ 210 million deal; and in its acquisition of a local pharmaceutical Company, Amoun Pharmaceutical Industries, at an approximate price of US$ 105 million;
• Representing the shareholders of a major pharmaceutical company in the sale of the majority of their equity participation to a Kuwaiti based private equity company for an undisclosed amount;
• Representing Pfizer in its attempted acquisition of a pharmaceutical company in Egypt in 2008;
• Representing a private equity company based in London in its acquisition of an equity stake in a large Egyptian group of pharmaceutical companies, valued at US$ 160 million; and
• Representing a Qatari private equity in its contemplated acquisition of an equity stake in Amoun Pharmaceutical Company, valued at US$ 500 million.

Additionally, the firm has advised on a number of issues relating to hospitals. Examples include:

• Advising the winning consortium of the Alexandria University Hospitals PPP project in relation to the tender requirements and shareholding structure of the project company;
• Advising on the legal intricacies of donating a vast parcel of land located in Upper Egypt with a license to build a hospital on it;
• Advising the Association of Friends of the National Cancer Institute in relation to the tender requirements for the establishment of the Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt (CCHE 57357); and
• Drafting and reviewing a number of supplying agreements between medical equipment suppliers and hospitals.