Australia has a similar mechanism in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Drugs are selected based on cost-effectiveness analysis and subsidised price is negotiated with pharmaceutical companies.
If anything, Australia is quite generous to pharmaceutical companies. New Zealand's Pharmaceutical Management Agency has much less negotiating power but still manages to obtain substantially lower prices.
For myself I can't help but wonder if lump-sum licensing might not be more effective. Pharmaceuticals are a bit like software: very high R&D cost, but the marginal cost to manufacture is very small. A one-time payment to sink a large chunk of R&D for a drug might be quicker and easier than guessing at a price. On the other hand, I have no experience in health economics, so it's possible this is a terrible idea.