Pharmaceutical products of a foreign company can be registered in Egypt through a scientific office that is duly incorporated. Such offices can be established in Egypt for the purposes of registering pharmaceutical products, promoting, storing and distributing pharmaceutical samples to doctors, hospitals, clinics and the like.

Establishing a scientific office is regulated by virtue of the Pharmacy Law and relevant ministerial decrees (MoH Decrees No. 429/1976, 351/1994 and 425/2015). The procedures of setting up a scientific office of a foreign company would, primarily, entail:

  • Appointing a commercial agent how is registered at the Commercial Agent Register and the Importer Register at the General Organization for Export and Import Control (GOEIC).
  • Obtaining a license from CAPA in the name of the scientific office listing the products registered under the name of the foreign company.

The manager of a scientific office must be an Egyptian national who is a licensed member of one of the medical professions in Egypt (i.e. human doctor, veterinary doctor or pharmacist).

Originally published March 07, 2017

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