Price...

Senators challenged top executives of seven pharmaceutical companies on the spiraling costs of prescription drugs.

The CEOs of Pfizer, Merck, AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi defended their pricing and business practices before the Senate Finance Committee.

The executives agreed that drugs should be more affordable for Americans. But they were reluctant to promise to cut list prices without other reforms.

They argued that other factors, such as pharmacy benefit managers that negotiate discounts and insurance coverage, have greater influence on the price consumers pay at the pharmacy counter. They spoke of drug rebates that don't always reach consumers, payments tied to the value of a drug and more transparency.

Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier called pricing "complex and interdependent," and said addressing cost, access and affordability would require bringing "all the parties around the table."

Senators were skeptical of the industry's price-setting practices and heavy spending on marketing and sales spending. 

Patents give drug companies exclusive rights to sell a drug for several years before generic companies can make competing versions of the drug.

Other senators questioned whether Americans are subsidizing the cost of developing new drugs for the rest of the world.

The senators do that Sound Byte every two years with no results whatsoever. Just a thought.