Lawmakers will grill pharma execs today. Here's what to expect

The Senate Finance Committee will grill drug industry executives today about the high cost of medicines. Here’s what you need to know:  

• The questions: STAT's Nicholas Florko caught up with lawmakers to see how they plan to press drug makers. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley says he wants to know how drug makers set prices, a simple question that might be difficult to get answered. And both Republicans and Democrats want to know why the U.S. pays more for drugs than other countries. 
• The witnesses: The leaders of Merck, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, Sanofi, and Bristol-Myers Squibb will testify. Read more about their preparations here. 
• On a related note: Several anti-pharma groups are harnessing publicity around the hearing to promote their own messages. Among them: the patent reform coalition CAPA, which paid to wrap today’s Washington Post in a two-page ad that says “patent abuse is standard practice for Big Pharma.”