The self-made billionaire is disrupting drug distribution with his Cost Plus Drugs online pharmacy.
Those who have followed Mark Cuban closely in recent months may have noticed that the billionaire is obsessed with one company: Cost Plus Drugs.
His Twitter account is full of retweets and posts mentioning this company, which is an online pharmacy that he co-founded in January 2022.
Cost Plus Drugs seems to be the tech billionaire’s new mantra.
The company seems to have given him back his appetite, the joy of going on. It’s not that Cuban, a multifaceted and in-demand investor, lacked motivation. But Cost Plus Drugs seems to have triggered something in him.
The star of the hit show ‘Shark Tank’ is on a mission. He is determined to accomplish this mission. To do this, Cuban uses all weapons. It seems like his first company, and yet the owner of the Dallas Mavericks has created and supported many companies in the past.
His new ambition is indeed colossal. Cuban wants to move a mountain. Imagine: For decades, the cost of drugs has only increased in the United States, to the extent that many consumers choose not to receive treatment.
‘Nobody should be in that position’
But more often than not, consumers are being strangled by colossal bills and end up losing everything.
To justify their high prices, drug companies say it’s the price to pay for research and development. Basically, to keep funding research, they need to raise prices.
Critics say it’s an excuse, pointing to the disparity between drug prices in the United States and other industrialized countries, including neighboring Canada. The Cuban is part of this field.
Therefore, he decided to prove that it was possible to provide affordable medicine in the United States, without necessarily breaking the bank. Cuban is attacking a hundred billion industry, stretching from pharmaceutical companies to drug distributors like CVS, RiteAid and Walgreens.
Cuban’s strength is its popularity and word of mouth from Cost Plus Drug customers who share their experiences on social media. Therefore, the billionaire often bounces these gratitude messages to give them an even bigger sounding board.
This is what he came to do, after a moving message from a patient and an announcement from President Joe Biden.
“While I lose Medicaid and go to Medicare @costplusdrugs will save me about $900 a month. Can you imagine? I would be homeless,” the Twitter user posted on March 15.
“Exactly why we started @costplusdrugs,” the billionaire commented the next day.
Then he appealed to patients who are saddled with large drug bills.
“No one should be in that position. Ever.”
The day before, Cuban had already urged a patient, who was praising the merits of his company, to speak out.
“I just got a 90 day supply of my meds for less than $40 from @costplusdrugs and had been paying around $900/mo before WITH insurance. These are life changing savings!” the patient posted on Twitter.
“Spread the word!!!” said the investor.
Disrupt the pharmaceutical industry
When Biden announced a trip to outline his administration’s plan to cut drug costs, Cuban asked the president to engage with his company, as Cost Plus Drugs is already doing.
“I’m in Las Vegas today to talk about what I’m doing to lower prescription drug costs,” the president’s Twitter account wrote on March 15.
“@costplusdrugs could save a lot more. You just need to contact us,” said the billionaire.
Cost Plus Drugs fills and delivers prescriptions at cost plus a flat 15% margin. The online pharmacy can provide these prices because there is no distributor in the middle. Cost Plus Drugs bypasses health insurers and deals directly with drug manufacturers.
“We started this company as an effort to disrupt the pharmaceutical industry and do everything we can to end ridiculous drug prices,” Cuban says on the company’s website.
The online pharmacy has generic treatments for almost 70 diseases and health problems. Medications available in Cost Plus include treatments for asthma, breast cancer, alcohol addiction, diabetes, opioid addiction, mental health, dental care, heart failure, birth control, and more. .
Gaining prominence: Cuban told TheStreet in January that his online pharmacy’s key goals this year are to further lower drug prices and expand its customer base and drug offerings.
“Add brand name drugs. Push prices down. Expand our reach to millions more patients,” said the billionaire.
