The drug price battle took center stage this week as executives from several big pharma companies including Pfizer PFE, Sanofi SNY, J&J JNJ, AbbVie ABBV and others were grilled by senators regarding high drug prices. Senators emphasized that the United States has some of the highest drug prices in the world and the companies need to make changes in drug pricing before the government imposes regulations. They blamed the American patent system for the high prices of drugs as it gives these companies a lot of monopoly protection. In other news, Roche RHHBY announced a definitive agreement to buy gene therapy company Spark Therapeutics, Inc. ONCE for approximately $4.3 billion while Bristol-Myers BMY -Celgene's $74 billion merger deal ran into trouble.