Abstract

In a very complex environment with multiple factors influencing decisions related to access to medicinal products, we came up with an idea that a review of drug policies in several Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries could be of general public interest.

The project was initiated and conducted within the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) CEE Publication Network working group. Experts from participating countries have been involved in the project and have provided detailed information and data on pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement.

The rationale was to assess and share information from the region regarding drug policies and improve information and knowledge on pharmaceutical systems in the considered countries. Although several articles have described the health care systems at a country level, to our knowledge, a review of national approaches is yet to be done in depth, particularly in case of CEE countries. Thus, a series of articles to investigate drug policies in the CEE region including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] have been prepared and included in the first of two parts of this theme section. Additional reports from other countries would be included in the next volume dedicated to this section.

The articles provide an analysis of the national impacts of CEE countries’ pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies in the years 2013 and 2014. They assess how pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement have helped countries of the region to achieve certain well-established health policy goals.