OBJECTIVES:  Since the onset of the economic crisis in Europe (2008), several countries have been pushed to adopt policy measures to reduce pharmaceutical expenditure, inevitably affecting people’s access to medicines. Hence, this research aims to explore policy and cost-containment measures regarding access to medical treatments across Europe following the economic crisis and the implementation of austerity measures. METHODS:  We searched Web of Science using a strategy that combined different terms for “austerity” and “market access”. We limited our searches to European countries and to a timeframe of 8 years (January 2008 – May 2016). We supplemented our searches with a hand-search of the websites of the national Ministries of Health for each country. Titles and abstracts were assessed by one reviewer. RESULTS:  A total of 94 citations were identified: 59 abstracts were screened and 43 met the inclusion criteria for full-text review. Finally, 13 papers were included in the review. Four categories of policy measures have been taken across Europe: rational selection and use of medicines, sustainable financing for medicines, affordability of medicines, and reliable health care and supply systems for provision of medicines