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Find out moreThe first Law Update of 2024 is here, and our first focus of the year spotlights Healthcare and Lifesciences, a sector that is undergoing significant growth and development across the MENA region.
Our focus provides an insight into some of the most important regulatory updates across the region, such as the UAE’s groundbreaking law on the use of human genome, Kuwait’s resolution on nuclear and radioactive materials, the new regulations for healthcare services in Qatar, Egypt’s healthcare regulatory framework, and the impact of the Saudi Civil Transactions Law on the healthcare and life sciences sector … and there is so much more!
Beyond the healthcare pages our lawyers share with you multi-sector insights where you will discover articles on Dubai’s DIFC regulatory framework for startups, Bahrain’s commercial agencies law, and we also shed light on Kuwaiti civil code and the advantages of setting up a joint stock company in Saudi Arabia.
Read the full editionArif Mawany - Head of Corporate Commercial - Oman - Commercial / Corporate / Mergers and Acquisitions / Capital Markets
November 2016
Key issues arising under the new law
The key provisions of the new law require that all Omani companies which have been granted licences to conduct pharmaceutical activities must now restructure to include an Omani pharmacist into their shareholder structure. The consequence of this legislative requirement is that existing foreign owned Omani pharmacies may need to either reduce the equity held by the non-Gulf Corporation Council (‘GCC’) national shareholder or their current Omani sponsor. Applications to open new pharmacies must comply with this rule immediately, whereas existing pharmacies have a short period of time to comply.
Other notable issues
Other areas covered by the law, which will affect the larger pharmacy chains in Oman, are as follows:
Impact
The law is likely to have a greater effect on businesses that hold doctors’ practices, hospitals, and pharmacies under one Omani company. In this situation, a new company should be created to hold the pharmaceutical business separately from the other businesses. It will be necessary to move existing pharmacy branch registrations over to the new company. This will delay new pharmacy registrations but the process of transferring branches can usually be carried out in a short period of time, minimising the delay.
Businesses can also benefit from new Ministry of Commerce practice that no longer requires investors to produce physical evidence of the availability of the start up share capital in an Omani bank account. While the capital will eventually need to be deposited into the new company, the new practice means the capital obligation is spread out over the first financial year.
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