OBJECTIVES: To overview research methodologies related to external price referencing (EPR) in order to support an ongoing survey on 1) the comparison of European price corridor of pharmaceuticals and non-pharmaceutical services and 2) limitations in patient access to drugs in Central Eastern European (CEE) countries. METHODS: Comprehensive review of peer reviewed and grey literature was conducted in 2015 February. Publications in PubMed database were searched using four keyword sets: #1 External reference pricing, #2 Central Eastern Europe, #3 Consequences, #4 Pharmaceuticals. We used linkage as follows: #1 AND (#2 OR #3 OR #4). References from relevant publications and results from manual google search were also reviewed. RESULTS: