OBJECTIVES: Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is an international integration economic union established by a treaty which was signed on 2014. The union includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. By 2017, the EAEU will form a common pharmaceutical market. Markets for medical equipment will also be integrated. Our objective is to analyze which pharmaceutical policies EAEU countries applied during the financial crisis. METHODS: We undertook a survey with officials from public authorities for pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement of 5 countries represented in EAEU based on a questionnaire. The survey was launched in November 2015 and repeated in March 2016 to obtain updated information. RESULTS: In most countries the prices of medicines are controlled at the stage of manufacture or wholesale. All surveyed countries run a reference price system, i.e. a reimbursement policy based on clusters of identical or similar medicines for which a fixed amount of reimbursement is granted. During the survey period, 17 measures were identified in countries surveyed which were implemented to contain public medicines expenditure. Price reductions, changes in the co-payments, in the VAT rates on medicines and in the distribution margins were among the most common measures. The largest number of measures were implemented in Kazakhstan and Russia. CONCLUSIONS: Cost-containment has been an issue for better-income countries in EAEU – no matter if hit by the crisis or not. Changes in pharmaceutical policies were reported from 3 EAEU countries. Measures which can be implemented rather swiftly (e.g. price cuts, changes in co-payments and VAT rates on medicines) were among the most frequent measures. While the “crisis countries” (e.g. Kyrgyzstan, Armenia) reacted with a bundle of measures, reforms in other countries (e.g. Kazakhstan, Russia) were not directly linked to the crisis, but also aimed at containing public spending. Since further reforms are under way, we recommend that the monitoring exercise is continued.