On 26 November, TEGOS Senior Associate Rokas Kazakevičius participated in the National Health Management Forum (Nacionalinis sveikatos vadybos forumas) organised by the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU). He delivered a presentation titled “The (In)Stability of Legal Regulation and Its Impact on Stakeholders in the Health Sector.”
In his address, Rokas highlighted a challenge that has long shaped the operating environment for health care, pharma, and medtech companies in Lithuania: the abundance of grey areas in the relevant legal framework. Many legal acts in these fields leave room for interpretation, yet there is little to no domestic case law or authoritative guidelines to clarify how those provisions should be applied in practice. As Rokas noted, navigating a grey area always involves risk – and businesses are frequently left without clear guidance.
Some of these ambiguities are widely recognised, yet they remain unaddressed. Rokas pointed to one striking example: even supervisory authorities do not have a consistent understanding of how to distinguish between pharmaceutical scientific events and promotional events when applying existing criteria. Such uncertainty complicates planning, compliance, and communication for all market participants.
Waiting for case law to resolve these issues may seem like an option, but Rokas emphasised that this approach would take many years and still offer no guarantees. In his view, Lithuania needs a systematic legislative approach to mapping and eliminating at least the most apparent grey zones. Doing so would not only reduce unnecessary risks for businesses but also ease the administrative burden on regulators, who would face fewer disputes and fewer requests for ad hoc opinions.
Rokas argued that addressing long-standing ambiguities – rather than introducing new regulations or reforms, as has happened several times in recent years – could have a significantly greater positive impact on the sector. In his opinion, this targeted, clarity-driven approach would contribute more to legal certainty than some of the latest reform packages.
This call for clearer, more stable legal regulation formed the core of his message at the National Health Management Forum (Nacionalinis sveikatos vadybos forumas).
This year’s forum focused on strategic planning in health care and the key challenges shaping the future of the health system. Now in its fifth edition, the event has become a tradition – a platform that brings together health-sector professionals to exchange knowledge, experience, and insights.
