Mark Cuban: On a Mission to Provide Affordable Medication

Mr. Cuban is a widely known billionaire United States entrepreneur, who makes appearances as an investor on the American reality TV show, “Shark Tank.” Mr. Cuban has revealed that he has invested in vegan brands, including, but not limited to, Everything Legendary, Pan’s Mushroom Jerky, Numilk, Mrs. Goldfarb’s Unreal Deli and Wild Earth vegan dog food.

Mr. Cuban also partakes in philanthropic activities such as the AI Bootcamps initiative. His recent endeavor, The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (or CPDC), seeks to revolutionize the pharmacy industry by selling low-cost medication that is affordable for Americans. “Because it’s just wrong that people have to choose between eating, the rent, and taking their medications or buying their medications in the United States of America in 2022, it’s just wrong. And it was obvious there was not going to be a political solution.”

The CPDC has created its own PBM to negotiate with pharmaceutical providers. Because it deals directly with drug manufacturers to purchase medications without any rebates, this enables it to buy the pharmaceuticals at a lower price, and CPDC passes on its cost savings to its customers. Another factor that can influence the price of prescription drugs is that people who don’t have health insurance often pay more. Thankfully, people without insurance can easily purchase their pharmaceuticals from CPDC. Their pricing model is very transparent and is shared with consumers, who can see the price at which the company purchased the medication. With this pricing system, some medications are 10-times cheaper when purchased through CPDC.

As of July 2022, CPDC provides approximately 800 generic medications. The challenge of providing brand-name medications has been acknowledged, and the enterprise is working on offering these in the near future, hopefully in 2023. The firm also plans to manufacture its own generic drugs in a purpose-built factory in Dallas, Texas. This would enable the business to provide generic pharmaceuticals at an even lower cost.