Edward Imrie

The 2025 Healthcare Odyssey

Welcome to the first edition of Law Update for 2025. As we begin this exciting year, we are pleased to turn our attention to one of the most dynamic sectors in the UAE and the broader GCC region – healthcare. Over the past several years, the region has seen unprecedented growth in this sector, driven by legislative advancements, technological innovations, and the increasing focus on sustainability and AI. As such, healthcare is set to be one of the most important sectors in the coming decade.

In this issue, we explore key themes that are significantly shaping the future of healthcare in the UAE, such as recent changes in foreign ownership laws. These reforms present a major opportunity for foreign investors, opening up new avenues for international collaborations and improving the overall healthcare infrastructure. The changes in ownership laws are an important milestone, and we provide an analysis of what this means for the industry and the various players involved.

Read Now

The leading law firm in the Middle East & North Africa region.

Biography

Edward is an England and Wales law qualified solicitor in the firm’s intellectual property group. He specialises in all aspects of intellectual property law – both contentious and non-contentious matters – having previously trained at a top-tier international law firm. He has a particular focus on commercial transactions in the UAE and the Middle East region across all sectors.

Edward’s practice revolves around drafting, reviewing and negotiating a wide range of IP-related documents including licensing and assignment agreements, franchise agreements, distribution and supply agreements, and IP policies to name a few.

Edward regularly assists clients across a wide range of industries concerning mergers & acquisitions, from managing the due diligence process, to negotiating on IP warranties in transaction documents, to the advising on the disclosure process and ensuring the post-completion obligations are completed.

On the advisory side, Edward has experience handling intra-company group restructurings, brand protection strategies, IP enforcement, anti-counterfeiting activities, and general queries relating to trademark, copyright, and trade name and domain name issues.

Edward also has experience advising pharmaceutical companies on life sciences and healthcare regulatory compliance queries and has worked on various patent litigation cases both within the pharmaceutical and telecommunication sectors in the past.

Recent Experience

Advising and managing multiple trademark applications opposition for a well-known, multinational FMCG company.
Assisting an international e-commerce in respect to an acquisition of a successful e-commerce business based in the Middle East.
Assisting with an acquisition of a private educational institution based in the UAE.
Advising a Chinese Automobile Company on entry-to-market IP queries.
Assisting a UAE government entity in relation to contract negotiations within the healthcare industry.