OBJECTIVES: CEE region is characterised by its wide range of approaches to granting public funding for drugs – from a “no submission and no HTA” approach up to an extensive HTA with systematic review and economic evaluation. The aim is to create and test the methodological approach on assessment of P&R potential in CEE countries. The further goal is to identify countries with the highest reimbursement potential for a particular drug in the region. METHODS: The methodology approach on P&R potential assessment took into account: current management of disease, patient numbers, KOL mapping, patient pathways, guidelines and funding mechanisms, drug pricing and reimbursement processes, timelines, likelihood of achieving an average European list price and opportunities to supply drug on a Named Patient Programs basis. The necessary information was divided into six categories: epidemiology, price, probability of reimbursement, time, analytical effort, cost of application. For each category, a weight reflecting the importance and impact of parameters was assigned. The methodology has been tested on an orphan drug example in 15 CEE countries. RESULTS: The following CEE countries were pre-selected: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine. The greatest weights were incorporated to probability of public funding, epidemiology, price and time - 24%, 22%, 20% and 18% respectively, whereas cost of application and analytical effort were assessed as of lower importance: 10% and 6%. Turkey was assessed to have the highest P&R potential for tested drug. Poland and Slovakia were also found as important with attractive achievable price and similar moderate probability of reimbursement. CONCLUSIONS: Despite many differences among countries, using P&R potential overview method makes it possible to inform on strategic business decisions for which countries to prioritize for launch and for allocation of efforts to obtain public funding