Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban is focusing his philanthropic efforts on his latest venture, an online pharmacy that will offer generic drugs at affordable prices to consumers.
Cuban announced the launch of his online pharmacy last week, and unlike traditional distributors, Cuban’s pharmacy has been overly transparent in what the costs to consumers will be.
The online pharmacy costplusdrugs.com explains, "We started Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company because every American should have access to safe, affordable medicines. If you don’t have insurance or have a high deductible plan, you know that even the most basic medications can cost a fortune. Many people are spending crazy amounts of money each month just to stay healthy. No American should have to suffer or worse—because they can't afford basic prescription medications."
The digital pharmacy explains that it will sell generic forms of medication at their cost price with a 15% markup. Industry sources detail that some drug distributors can mark up the price of drugs anywhere from 25% to over 100%. Cuban’s online pharmacy promises to keep costs low by staying consistent with its 15% markup. There will also be a $3 pharmacist fee and a shipping fee for an additional $5.
Efforts to keep generic drug costs low stem from the recent scandals of price gouging including that of “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli. Shkreli made national headlines after hiking up the price of the antiparasitic drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to a whopping $750 per pill. He has since been arrested and is serving time in a Pennsylvania prison over securities fraud.
In an email with Forbes news, Cuban explains his rationale for his low-cost pharmacy: “It's ridiculous what the pricing for generic drugs is. Period end of story.” One of the first drugs offered on the digital Pharmacy will be a drug used to treat a parasitic hookworm. The drug albendazole retails for an average price of $225 per pill. In Cuban’s pharmacy, it will cost $20 per pill. Cuban also shares the example of the drug Imatinib, a chemotherapy drug used by patients with leukemia. The drug retails at $9,657 per month and $120 a month with the use of a voucher. Cuban’s pharmacy will sell the generic for the low cost of $47 per month.
While the online pharmacy is branded by the billionaire’s iconic name, Dr. Alex Oshmyansky is the CEO and founder of the billionaire-backed philanthropic venture. Oshmyansky reached out to Cuban via email and the pair decided to move forward with plans for a digital pharmacy that would give millions of Americans access to affordable generic medication. Oshmyansky detailed his frustration over price hiking for necessary drugs and explained, “I had patients have serious injuries from the high cost of drugs, which should have been very cheap. I've been angry about it for a long time.”
The digital pharmacy will begin selling drugs used to treat an array of conditions including HIV, diabetes, cancer medications, and more. In response to adding additional medications to the digital marketplace, Cuban explained through a tweet “We will add them as quickly as we can.” He adds that the company has plans to build a facility in Dallas to provide their “own injectables as well.”
