The government should encourage schemes to help make older drugs available on the NHS at a cost that the drug industry would find 'too low', according to 2020Health.
The independent think tank's report on value-based pricing, concluded that patients could mistake the scheme for a commitment to make more medicines available when this is not the case.
Value-based pricing will replace the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, which expires in 2014. It aims to ensure the price the NHS pays for new medicines is linked to their value to patients and society.
But the report states that medicines pricing can be further improved and urges the government to consider other solutions, including lowering the price of older drugs to accommodate higher prices for new products and encouraging patient access schemes to make drugs available on the NHS.