On 29 February-1 March 2024, Almaty hosted one of the greatest and most significant events of the pharmaceutical market – 15th International Eurasian Pharmaceutical Forum 2024, with AEQUITAS acting as an official partner of the event.

As part of the partner program, AEQUITAS Counsel Larissa Yemelyanova spoke at the event.  The topic of her focus report was "System risks of the legal environment in the EAEU and national Kazakhstan legislation affecting pharmaceutical activities, circulation and availability of medicines on the Kazakhstan market".

The key purpose of the report was to highlight the directions for improvement of the legal work, form more favorable legal environment and ensure the interests of all parties of the pharmaceutical market, including patients, healthcare professionals and business community.

In her report, Larissa distinguished the following key groups of risks:

1. non-systemic approach to the key issues of the branch;
2. absence of a legal response to the business concerns;
3. excessive regulatory pressure;
4. clinical protocols as a barrier against the patients' access to new technologies and treatment;
5. topical issues of regulation of promotion of medicines;
6. certain issues of procurement and prices; and
7. legal issues of introduction of artificial intelligence (insight into prospects).

It is worth specifically mentioning that Larissa proposed to follow the "Jus est ars boni at aqui" principle during the suggested legal reform, which was formed by a Roman consul of the 1st century A.D., Publius Iuventius Celsus, according to whom law is the art of goodness and equity.

For more details about Larissa's speech, please see the presentation (in Russian).