The private sector commands approximately 45% of all goods, services, products and technologies in Kenya’s health sector.
Our life sciences lawyers have legal, scientific and medical knowledge and understand the complexity of the business and regulatory environments in which our clients operate.
The challenges facing today’s biotechnology and medical device companies are greater than ever. For companies to take promising therapies from the laboratory to the market, they must protect those therapies from IP, regulatory and reputational risks.
We combine subject matter experience with considerable knowledge of the sector, including the regulatory, commercial and enforcement environments facing our biopharmaceutical, medical device, and research and diagnostics clients.
Experience has included advising:
- The Kenyan government on the acquisition of medical equipment for 94 hospitals in all the 47 counties across the country. IKM’s role involved: advising the government on the optimal procurement process under Kenya’s procurement law as well as the laws on PPPs; drafting the tender documentation and thereafter assisting the government in the evaluation process; preparation of the relevant project agreements including the managed equipment services contract, funders’ direct agreements and an intergovernmental agreement between the national government and county governments; and generally advising the government on all issues arising within the course of the procurement
- One of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies on the legality of implementing an online and mobile platform for healthcare providers and an integrated diabetes solution in Kenya
- A US-based company developing food additives to extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables, on the regulatory requirements for introducing a new additive in Kenya.
- Advised a private hospital on its acquisition by a private equity fund, which involved the purchase of a majority stake in a group of health facilities serving Kenya’s lower-to-middle-income population.
- A leading French biopharmaceutical company on the legality of a proposed start-up mobile data app intended to be introduced in Kenya that enables patients to have access to licensed doctors based anywhere in the world
- International Finance Corporation (IFC) in the financing and development of a greenfield multispecialty hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, with a primary focus on providing affordable cardiac care as well as specialty services such as nephrology, oncology, general surgery and intensive care
- Healthcare Global (Kenya) Limited on the acquisition of a majority equity stake of Cancer Care Kenya Limited, a specialty oncology center in Kenya
- A biomedical and genomic research center based in the US on the rules and regulations concerning the collection of human biospecimens in Kenya
Kenyans may be paying up to thirty times more for everyday medicines. This is according to a 2019 study from the Center for Global Development, which reported that low to middle income countries sometimes pay up to thirty times more for medication compared to high income countries.