Mark Cuban Says Americans Shouldn't Have To Pick Between Rent, Food Or Medicine

This article was originally published on July 29, 2022.

Famed billionaire, entrepreneur and Dallas Maverick’s owner Mark Cuban thinks Americans shouldn’t have to pick between necessities such as food, medicine or rent.

And he’s provided a solution for at least one of those essentials.

What Happened: Cuban caught up with “The Long Shot Pod” podcast during the early July NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, where Cuban was assessing the Maverick’s rookie and bench players. He was on to discuss various topics such as his largest Shark Tank deals, why he purchased the Mavs, and what he’s doing to shake up the health care industry in a big way.

Read also: Mark Cuban's Worst Shark Tank Investment And The One That Pleasantly Surprised Him

“You should not have to pick between your rent, your food, or your medicine — that’s f**** up in every which way,” said Cuban as he was discussing the genesis of his low-cost prescription drug company.

“We [came] up with a way to buy generic drugs initially, set up a company where we just sell them for our cost, plus 15%, plus $3 for handling for the pharmacy we work with, plus $5 for shipping. That’s it,” he explained. 

Costplusdrugs.com is the innovative and disruptive way Cuban intends to shake up the health care industry. By cutting out the middle man and being transparent with costs, Cuban hopes to provide everyone with affordable and life-saving medicines.

“If you go to the website and type in a drug — you’ll see exactly what we pay for it,” Cuban said. “We don’t take insurance, we work outside of the system — we’re typically lower than peoples' co-pay, even if they have insurance,” he noted.

Why It Matters: If someone needed acid reflux medication, such as Pfizer Inc.’s PFE Protonix, they would visit the website, search for the medication and see that the generic version of it is listed for $4.50 per tablet, while it retails for $71.32 — a savings of $66.82.

Cuban used the example of Novartis AG's NVS Leukemia drug, Gleevec, which retails for $2,502.50 per tablet. On his website, the generic version of it, Imatinib, sells for $14.40 per tablet. A savings of $2,488.10. 

“We started on January 19th of this year, and we’ve already shipped more prescriptions than we expected two years in — the goal is to disrupt, and change the game,” Cuban said.

Photo: Kathy Hutchins via Shutterstock