The Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association has said it will propose a new system to ensure Irish patients are among the first in Europe to access new medicines, in a way that is affordable to the State.
Formal talks between the State and the pharmaceutical industry are to begin this month to try to reach a successor drug pricing agreement to the existing deal.
The three-year drug pricing agreement between the State and the pharmaceutical industry expires at the end of the month.
The State currently spends around €1.3 billion a year on medicines.
The IPHA says the system used by the Health Service Executive to assess new medicines can be slow and needs to be fully resourced, with more experts to do the job speedily and efficiently.
The industry has faced criticism recently for the price sought by some drug companies for new high-tech medicines.
The Department of Health said that the existing agreement has delivered savings of over €400m.
It said that while one option is to agree a new deal, another is to use existing legislation to reduce drug prices.
Read Health Correspondent Fergal Bowers' blog
The Clinical Director of the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics, which advises on the cost effectiveness of medicines on the market, has said the State is still paying too much for some drugs.
Professor Michael Barry told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that one such drug was Soliris, for a rare genetic blood disease, which the State eventually decided to pay at €430,000 a year per patient.
He said: "I don't think anyone can stand over that medication. We assessed the medication. We concluded it wasn't value for money."
The funding of the drug highlights there are issues other than the cost-effectiveness of the drug, such as ethical considerations and patient need, he added.
However, Prof Barry said Ireland is about the middle of the market when it comes to price.
He said the amount of people employed by the pharmaceutical industry was not a consideration of the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics.
He said there has been a big improvement in the price the State pays for generic drugs since 2013. This is important, he added, as it allowed for a sustainable market for drugs.
