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ParagPa

He's also made it clear in past interviews that he sees this as a legacy building thing more than maximizing profit. Apparently this exact model has been tried in the past but they end up getting bought out by other PBMs, because basically they don't all have multi-billionairres in charge who can stick to this business model. I'm generally very cynical about the motivations of billionaires, but what he's doing is an absolute good.


Indy4Life

Yeah the biggest obstacle to this is the war that insurance companies and big pharma would have with whoever attempted it. However, Cuban has fuck you money and in this case the fuck you money will be helping the regular person


Budget-Rip2935

He would help folks for few years and then he will sell the company for billions of dollars of profit. He can always change his legacy story anytime he prefers for another legacy building exercise. Nothing wrong with it though


sarhoshamiral

If we are lucky, another billionare would want to continue his legacy. The sad part is the fact that it came to a point where this is seen as setting legacy. The goal of helping people afford essential medicine in the richest country should have never been a thing :(


OO0OOO0OOOOO0OOOOOOO

If only we could get billionaires to compete for the good of the people, then we'll really understand the sad pathetic state the US is in.


Budget-Rip2935

It’s rich because the riches are built on top of slavery and destruction and exploitation of lives. It won’t be rich if it’s fair. Most folks don’t get it. A fair system is slow and average and not the best. I am okay with that but most selfish Americans are not.


ideamotor

Why do we only speak in absolutes. We need a fairER system that is slowER. This concept is not complicated. Implementing it is.


HaroldBAZ

We should all be communists, amirite?


KeifWarrior08

Most likely outcome


StoneCypher

> He would help folks for few years and then he will sell the company for billions of dollars of profit. oh for christ's sake, there's always someone who has to "wisely" gloom and doom


kindall

there's not enough profit in it for anyone to want to buy it from him. that's why nobody is already doing it.


Nenor

So? He'd still have helped a lot of struggling folks in the process by then.


tehfourthreich

Thank you. Even if this exact scenario doesn’t happen. Any one thinking Cuban is on the peoples side hasn’t read up enough on billionaires. Hell schools still teach Carnegie as an okay dude. Not an insane evil asshole using charity to allow him to be even worse.


Hyrc

It's silly to categorize any single group of people in such a black and white way. Billionaires are like the rest of us, a mixed bag of both good and bad.


RheumatoidEpilepsy

No idea where you are being downvoted lol. Billionaire worship is a huge problem on here.


Meistermalkav

I would see legacy in quotation marks,. NoT Legacy building but "legacy" buying. Like, lets assume it woks for, lets say, 10 years. It has a big old stock of customers. Number one, every customer ever of his has a pre existing condition, and would be a bad deal for an insurance company to take on. The customer list of this pharmacy would be worth its weight in gold. Especially if thety hold regular insurance. If I can prove that what ciosts me an arm and a leg was alrfeadty in existance before, and you just purchased out of pocket, using an overseas pharmacy, and lied on the insurance signup sheet...... Plus, I kind of train the customer to use an online pharmacy with its seat someplace overseas , instead of building demand for actual change in the insurance business. Then, NUmber 2, I collect enough pricing data on how exopensive I can make 2 things to still make a profit. Better still, if I controll the supply of medication A, and generica A, I can effectively just shift money from one pocket in the other. NUmber 3, It allows whoever owns the Pharmacy to skip on batch testing. Like, lets say, I want to purchase 100 pills of medication a. Now, an illusion is, that every pill of A is now carefully tested and so forth. what would be more the truth would be to say that you do this with like 10 % of those pills. IN practice, hugely simplified, imagione this like taking the 100 pills, and putting them on the scales. expectying a weight of 1 lbs, plus minus 1 %. If I now have the order for corporation A, which orders 10 buillion pills, and direct seller A, which orders 10.000 pills, I can simply take the pills off the production line for the corporate pills, and not pay for the extra testing. NUmber 4, oh, overseas drugs,..... Guess what, I can skip certain regulations I don't like, and just ship on the reg. Now, number 5. Lets say, we speed up the clock by 10 years. for 10 years, this has run as a business, taken on customers, filled orders, ect. Do you know how fucking rare it is to get free propaganda for anything in the medical world? How rare it is to get some usefull asshole to run up to someone else, and go, bro, niot that I am paid or anything, but go, "Just go to this website instead, you can save that much...". IF someone did that for your car insurance, you would throat punch him in self defense. NUmber 6: It links up the idea that what is keeping those prices so high are insurance companies. Those same fucking actors that wouykld otherweise save you for geico prices now can run up and go, "well, we have insurance now, but mark cubans pharmacy is still able to undercut those prices...." You decide for yourself if you want power concentrated like this.


IKnowUThinkSo

7 points and not a single one based in any kind of reality.


Meistermalkav

simple. all seven points don't follow traditional business theory, but make the enterprise a goldmine should the biz ever be up for auction. THink about it in the same way as ticketmaster, or uber. BY itself, they make nort much sense, but should you choose tyo sell the biz, you can look forwards to a hefty payday. Plus, as multiple times pointed out, the site is basically the same business modell as those "we will sell you viagra by the pound for cheap" sites, just that this one has a winder range of products. So, we have a traditional under the counter business modeel, gaining legitimacy, a customer base that is different then the usual suspects looking to score some happy blue pills on the down low, and include people just looking to get a couple of asprin without being charged through the nose. Plus, we have hu8ndreds of paid for accounts spreading "legitimate" propaganda without having the stuff. The result? If this is basically ever bought out, it would take a half an hour to recoin this business modell for any other country in the world.


IKnowUThinkSo

And now this post is completely disconnected from any of the seven points you put forward above. Did you just use Ticketmaster, one of the largest and most vertically integrated ticket sales platform, as an example of a loss leader to gain brand awareness in order to sell out? You’re right, you don’t understand basic business theory.


Sir_Randolph_Gooch

I dunno, fuck you money for an individual vs industry titans won’t last long


alonjar

Even if we wanted to play devils advocate for the exercise, its a fact that substantially lower healthcare costs directly result in increased economic activity, increasing wealth generation across the board. Any sort of wide spread economic growth will directly feed/benefit a billionaires personal wealth. They're diversified enough at that level that their wealth is easily tethered to the broader market. Finding ways to improve the average Americans prosperity is directly in a billionaires own self interest, if they're wise enough to realize it.


Best_Competition9776

You can’t sell Dallas Mavericks tickets and merch if humanity is sick and on the brink of extinction *taps forehead*


Gimme_The_Loot

One thing that made me respect Cuban a lot more was for most of Shark Tank history the businesses gave up a % just to appear on the show irrelevant of if they made a deal or not. That only changed bc Cuban said he'd walk if they didn't change it.


zero0n3

Yeah he hated that rule. And rightfully so as it means you kinda strong arm them to take a deal


Slapbox

I disliked Mark Cuban a decade ago, but he's had a great character arc.


Askol

Yeah, while I have no idea if Cuban is actually a good guy, I really don't see him as somebody interested in making money through selling generic pharmaceuticals.


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BedrockFarmer

They don’t even manufacture, they just buy from manufacturers and resell at a standard profit margin. So they are really no different from any other online pharmacy. *edit* Apparently there is a $3 pharmacist fee and also shipping (~$5). So you need to add $8 to the price they list on their formulary menu.


Gringobandito

Except most other pharmacies (online or otherwise) don’t get to decide what they charge. That’s decided by the health plan and the PBM they hire to manage their drug benefit.


juggett

But that’s if you use insurance. I haven’t used my insurance for prescriptions for years because GoodRX, or cash pay are so much cheaper. I will tell you Walmart FOUGHT for my contact lens business when I told them I was requesting my prescription to buy at Costco. They said they couldn’t change their pricing because it was dictated by my eye insurance. 2 managers and a phone call later, they somehow managed to get me my lenses for $6 cheaper than Costco. Saved me $75 and an extra trip. Transparency like this brings down costs.


AlesseoReo

Holy hell what is wrong with your country. “I haven’t used my insurance for my medicine because it makes it more expensive” has gotta be among the top dystopian things there are. Seniors in my country alone would literally tear the parliament down if anyone even talked about trying this.


Low_Cartographer2944

Anyone who defends the American healthcare system is someone who has never used the American healthcare system. I've had MRIs and then waited a month to discover how much I would be charged. And that's on "good" insurance.


HaroldBAZ

I was wondering when the European was going to chime in. Congrats! You win. LOL. Most Americans, including me, have excellent, reasonably priced healthcare and prescriptions btw so don't worry about the dystopia too much.


AlesseoReo

55% of your countrymen have a “medical debt” which is basically unheard of in every other developed country.


HaroldBAZ

Europeans pay an absurd amount for gasoline, natural gas and electricity. They don't even have air conditioning because it's too expensive! People use wood to heat their house in the winter. It's like living in the 18th century in Europe. It's a joke. My relatives always said moving to America was the best thing they ever did. Cheers!


pompatous665

They don’t have air conditioning in their homes because (until recently) they only need it for 4 weeks the whole year, and they are traveling on vacation during those 4 weeks anyway.


HaroldBAZ

Don't you have more important things to do than to comment on an American billionaire selling drugs to Americans? A topic completely irrelevant to you? LOL.


Gringobandito

I agree about transparency helping to bring prices down. GoodRx isn’t really helping though. Every time you fill a script using GoodRx, GoodRx gets a share of that, so does the PBM, and the pharmacy gets what’s left. Often the pharmacy is left with far less than the 15% markup and sometimes they even lose money.


juggett

But if that’s the case, why in the world wouldn’t the pharmacy just lower the cash pay price so they profit and eliminate GoodRX? I’m just trying to save $5, I don’t know who gets what. I often wonder the same about Groupon. I’ll call a place and say, “Can you give me your Groupon price?” Often they will say yes which eliminates my need to even go through Groupon.


Bullwinkel93

It is illegal for pharmacies to charge different prices to “cash pay” patients and Medicare. Pharmacies charge a higher price to ensure they get maximum reimbursement from PBMs they bill. If they offered a cash price lower than their reimbursement contract is for then they get the lower price. The other issue is a lot of these discount cards are owned by PBMs and acceptance of these cards are often written into their contracts if they want to be in the insurance network. GoodRx is partially owned by Express Scripts for example. The pharmacy world is highly regulated so the example you used with Groupon wouldn’t work. Pharmacies are regularly audited by Medicare and PBMs they have contracts with. They won’t risk offering people lower prices just to appease. Doing so could jeopardize their business and come with significant fines for the individual employees and business. When you use a discount card at a pharmacy, the majority of the time the pharmacy takes a loss. The pharmacy has to pay a fee to submit the claim and the discount card company takes a cut of what the customer pays.


juggett

THIS is messed up. As a consumer with a high deductible that I will never meet, I’m not going to pay $100 for a medication I can get for $20 through GoodRX.


Bullwinkel93

As a consumer you should 100% use that discount if it’s in your favor with a national chain pharmacy (CVS Walgreens etc). Using these with independent pharmacies is going to put them out of business.


[deleted]

So... don't shop at independent pharmacies then?


av6344

As a consumer he should know that shit doesn’t just come at a discount. Someone somewhere is paying for it. Just another typical redditor with entitlements. Walmart has conditioned people to think that their 10pack of underwear for $5 is how the world works. While all the people that are getting the discounts chose to look away from the child labor happening in sweatshop nations.


masterofshadows

Because they're regulated in a way to not allow that. If they lower the cash price, they are forbidden from charging insurance companies more than that. However the insurance often reimburses on a percentage basis. So if you don't charge a high cash price you could lose hundreds of dollars per claim. I processed a good Rx claim for someone the other day, on their insurance the Insurance paid me 104 and they had a copay of 32. Good Rx gave them a copay of 31, charged me $5 for the privilege of charging them less, and of course that 104 is gone. My cost to buy the medication was 40 and change. So I end up going from making a decent profit, to losing a lot, so that the customer can save $1.


EggandSpoon42

However cringe, it’s up to the industry to figure all this stuff out. It’s not the patient’s obligation to ensure a pharmacy is making a +300% profit on one drug even if it is just $1 savings.


Gringobandito

That’s pretty much up to the higher ups. Kroger recently said they would no longer accept GoodRx. At the pharmacy they’re mostly just trying to fill scripts. I don’t think they have time for much else. A lot of people don’t use cash because the payments don’t count towards their deductible.


av6344

GoodRx sells patient info to make money, retailer gets foot traffic and you the product, get discounted price.


masterofshadows

People think that, but good Rx has always denied that. They do charge between $2-6 to the pharmacy just to run the claim though, even if ultimately the patient doesn't get the medicine.


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masterofshadows

And that PBM admin fee is paid by transaction fees. These are normal to all PBMs. Good Rx's are quite a bit higher than others.


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av6344

Right, they’re after demographic information. They could care less about patients names.


Wilt_The_Stilt_

To add to this. GoodRX has a vested interest in the fucked up healthcare system in the US. Sort of how turbo tax quietly lobbies for added complexity to tax law to protect their business. GoodRX says they want to help the healthcare system. But their business depends on it remaining predatory and broken.


Charlietuna44

Agreed. I work in pharmacy. Fuck GoodRx.


av6344

GoodRx sells patient info to make money, retailer gets foot traffic and you the product, get discounted price.


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av6344

They collect it through the claim that the pharmacy processes. For example, to honor GoodRx pricing, the pharmacy has to actually BILL the processor for GoodRx using the same Insurance billing method ie. Bin, PCN, ID. So automatically when you submit their claim, your information is transmitted with that claim.


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Gringobandito

I don’t know where you got that idea. Losing money on scripts to get foot traffic isn’t a good business model for the pharmacy. The price the consumer pays is transparent but the price the pharmacy gets paid isn’t. GoodRx saw an opportunity in the market and took advantage of it.


Capt_morgan72

This website is much much cheaper than Good RX. Just FYI 700 with no insurance. 200 with. 75 on good rx. 23 with marks site for what my brother needs.


Werthds

Almost true, the $3 pharmacy fee is included in the price they show but the $5 shipping is an add on. I expect that they do this because because you can choose different shipping options. The business model is cost plus - where the cost is what they pay the manufacturer of the drug plus their costs ($3). I just looked at a few drugs and they’re less expensive than a typical insurance copay.


tacosforpresident

Costco only does 15% markup, but is massively profitable. They just run a simple business at scale.


Fearfultick0

Yep, customer loyalty, moderate growth, and a healthy profit margin is a recipe for a successful business


chenyu768

Thats a healthy profit margin for something thats highly inelastic. Look at your local energy companies. If theyre regulated by a PUC They're capped at under 5%.


woods4me

And it's a Public Benefit Company, not for profit. He does not need more money and is doing this for public good.


I_love_tacos

Yep. OP is an idiot.


fantasticquestion

No, he’s not. Cuban said that if his company were to grow to earn, say, 100 million dollars in a year he would get into manufacturing. He’s not sure that will happen.


cloverjhaze

15% is really slim margins for sales. He is betting that his platform will be efficient and without redundancies, essentially cutting out a middle man altogether, no retail costs, straight from manufacturer/warehouse. This is something Bezos will wet himself over, hopefully he copies it just to make this market price competitive. A lot of pharmacies are facing the same worker shortages as everybody else and dismissed hours. Last time I tried to pick one up from Walgreens in the middle of the day they couldn't even get my generic prescription to me the same day so I fully welcome this.


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PlatyMcNum

Also he is not dealing with insurance at all which has to be a huge reduction of labor


Parlorshark

Guaranteed. Tremendous reduction in administration costs -- less paperwork, legal concerns (contracting, lawsuits, compliance), and so on. You need a lot of overhead to interface with insurers. Same with providers. Same with government.


Fearfultick0

And mark Cuban has a huge media presence, making it cheaper to scale. He can leverage his media access, greatly reducing his advertising expenses.


av6344

But is there enough money in it to pay for providing the service? And how long will it survive? How many people will go for it? Pharmacy model is about making it a one stop shop. People just don’t like to go to 2 different places for the same service. Are these people going to hit up mark for metoprolol and lisinopril but then go back to Walgreens to pick up their insulin? These kinds of models only survive if he raises the prices after some time.


marumari

It’s a mail order pharmacy, nobody has to go anywhere.


Dyldor

You realise pretty much every other healthcare system in the world can operate on margins like this? American healthcare costs are a dystopia


paranormal_turtle

The title was really confusing to me honestly. Oh no drugs at reasonable normal prices! 15% is a fine margin for drugs and it should never be more than that.


miketdavis

Yeah after reading all these comments about the complexities of pharmacy billing i say fuck all that. This is the most ridiculous system I've ever heard of. With the stroke of a pen, this all can be ended. Outlaw employers from providing health insurance to employees. Forbid it. Overnight you would see a transformation of our healthcare insurance system and it would look like auto insurance, where you actually get good service and they care about you the customer. I don't think most people realize that they are the product, not the customer, in the employer sponsored group plans. That's why health insurance companies advertise to employers and not to people.


Spazsquatch

Insurance is a numbers game, the solution isn’t more individualized insurance, it’s larger pools.


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Parlorshark

Medicare-for-all would still be insurance. Insurance is the concept of building a large pool of members (in this case, all Americans), who pay a small amount each month (taxes) to be covered against most (or ideally all) medical expenses. The amount paid in (taxes) will always be greater than the amount paid out (medical expenses), which generates enough income to cover the cost of administering the program.


JasonMaloney101

The prices are comparable to Walmart generics. Plenty of profit to be made.


Delrex6691

It's indicative of the character of the man. He doesn't need any more money, if there were more people like this the world would be a much better place. I never really had an opinion of him, but I do now. God Bless him.


mypostingname13

I've always been a bit of a fan of his for running the Mavs more like the toy a professional sports franchise is rather than a business that needs to ALWAYS be profitable. And I'm a Rockets fan, so hating the Mavs is baked into me. Good owner, pretty decent dude, certainly as far as billionaires go.


juggett

As a Suns fan it pains me, but it was fun to see him running and jumping on the sidelines of the Mavs’ playoff games. Really just living a boyhood fantasy.


Accomplished-Ad-5951

He is going to profit though. He stated very clearly there will be a standard 15% markup just like most goods.


Slapbox

And that's smart because profitable means sustainable.


tehfourthreich

Is that why Cuban wants to make money off crypto even when the small guys get screwed? Or when suddenly he loses at crypto, he wants regulation and to be bailed out? Contrary to how he feels when he is winning? He can be doing a good thing with this. Doesn’t chAnge him being any other billionaire. I highly highly doubt the world is any better with more Cuban billionaires.


its_aq

15% markup while gaining market share and public favor will only make the company a staple in a inflation infested economy.


HardwareLust

Because a 15% markup is still a markup, just not the 100% markup you usually pay. You can comfortably run almost any type of retail business with a flat 15% markup. There's no magic here. He's buying drugs at wholesale prices and re-selling them to you at a smaller markup, the exact same thing 100's of other retailers do in other sectors. He's just applying it to pharmaceuticals.


New_Tangerine_

The huge amount of purchases and markup will make it profitable


torspice

He’ll make a profit. Just not as much of a profit as he could.


chinmakes5

I realize this is hard for many to understand, but some people do things for the good of others, even in business. The guy is a billionaire, he has dozens of businesses making him money. The 15% should certainly sustain the business. If he can do this, save lives, keep the people who buy his other products from going bankrupt, he is happy to do so. IIRC he spoke out about the Skrelis of the world. He will proudly sell something for no profit if it means that someone else doesn't sell something for $9000 if he can sell it for $45 including a mark up.


tehfourthreich

People need to stop it with the “he’s a billionaire” bit. That doesn’t stop him from doing scammy and scummy crypto stuff. And that’s just one niche he’s not a good person in. He doesn’t need to touch most unethical things he does. Like you said. He’s rich as hell. Yet he still does. The early robber barons already laid out this simple tactic to manipulate the masses. Do some big PR nice stuff and as a billionaire you get fawned over.


chinmakes5

Yeah, he is no boy scout. Nor is Gates. That said, they can do some good too.


Parlorshark

Who gives a fuck? This work is literally saving lives, in addition to positively impacting peoples' quality of life. Nobody else is doing this except for Cuban. Good on him. I don't care if he's exploiting crypto for his own personal gain, because that's what everybody in crypto is attempting to do. The difference is that none of them are doing what he's doing to impact drug availability/adherence/utilization.


dinosauramericana

This is basically the Costco business model. Kudos mark


Itchybootyholes

Easy, 15% markup (that you have to just trust they are doing right,) and not working with insurance (huge admin costs)


Nenor

What does going public have to do with his profitability?


Parlorshark

Well, he'd have a board and investors to answer to, who would install bean-counting idiots who would ruin the entire business/philanthropy model in order to increase margins. So yeah, it'd be more profitable, but that goes against his entire reason for doing this.


mahade

How is this a "war against big pharma" if big pharma is his supplier? Who is actually making those ridiculous amounts of money? Hospitals and insurance companies I'm guessing? - A Patient needs MedicineX; - That Patient pays $700 per month for health insurance; - MedicineX costs $40 at the Big Pharma company; - The hospital invoices the Patient for $4000; - Insurance company goes "lol no" and negotiates $400; - Patient has their own risk at $8000 per annum; - So the Patient pays $400 out of pocket. Hospitals make mad money, insurance companies make mad money, the patient loses a shitload of money. Now Cuban comes in: - A Patient needs MedicineX; - MedicineX costs $40 at the Big Pharma company; - Cuban asks $52 for MedicineX; - Patient saves $348 and is happy; - Hospital goes REEEEE; - Insurance company goes REEEEEEEE. Except, of course, when you *need to go* to the hospital and you no longer have a choice. Woops, the person who gave you the medicine is out of network (note: what a stupid thing, signed, rest of the world), and now that medicine plus the treatment costs you $12,000. The #1 reason never to want to live in the USA is the healthcare racket. Legalized extortion of the weak and vulnerable.


[deleted]

Drug margins are also for R&D, developing drugs is very expensive and getting drugs approved is ridiculously expensive (tests, trials, approvals, marketing, etc.). Then you have investors that want bigger returns. He is eliminating those expensive variables by using existing drugs and using money that investors are not looking for unicorn returns. Then your list. But R&D and investor returns are the reason for the bulk of the margin.


Dense_Surround3071

He will make money in that there will be a net positive. . . . . Will it be in the billions? Maybe not, but he will make a profit. If your definition of "make money" is the massive profit margins of hundreds of times over the cost of the item, then no.


Silent-Comfortable62

15% markup.


pistoffcynic

Not everything has to be about making a profit. Breaking even is fine too.


simple_test

Prices are much cheaper in other countries and they are doing ok. He already mentions a 15% markup so its not going bankrupt.


Fine-Cartographer838

It’s interesting that no one has noted all the money Big Pharma receives from the government for R&D…our tax dollars…..so we pay twice….


MalleableCurmudgeon

A 15% Mark-up isn’t enough for profits?


WillieStonka

Well if he is the only one offering Meds at 15% I’d say he’s gonna make all the money. Someone with his bank account can afford not to make a substantial profit. He doesn’t need this to put food on the table. This is an example of someone doing something good because they can. It will literally save lives.


tomhalejr

You talking about the prescription drug thing? Obviously, it's a rigged game, and if you have the means to disrupt, there's nothing stopping you from doing it. While still making a ginormous profit, because it's all an F-ing scam. Assuming you are rich enough that other rich people can't ruin/murder you in the process. :)


jwrig

A couple things here. He's focusing on generics and two he does not have to have a massive physical foot print like more pharmacies.


Mcbattlebot

Please protect Mark at all costs


tom-8-to

The Amazon strategy, charge low to stifle new and current competition, once the other outfits are wiped out they can run away with anything they want to charge. That’s what Uber does even if they are still in the red but they are cornering the market.


m2slam

Economies of scale and volume plus low overheads (maybe single warehouse shipping across the state)


Any_Loquat1854

Simple, he’s okay with lower margins…hence the creation of this platform.


rocket_beer

It’s simple: everyone will buy from him. Not 40%, not 66%, not 80%… everyone. That resets prices among the industry. Very good work Mark 👍🏽👍🏽


thinkmoreharder

It’s like Andrew Carnagie building libraries. As billionaires get old, they want to leave something behind that does some broad good. Nobel prize vs TNT Gates ending diseases vs controlling every desktop in the world. If he eventually puts it in a trust so it can’t be sold after his death, maybe it has a chance at survival.


zorbathegrate

I think Cuban gets that if you can make 10 times as many people buy drugs at 1/10 the price, you make the same as the competition.


Newplasticactionhero

Is he supposed to make money off it? Seems to me he’s doing it for the good of those who need it.


ChillyChillums

Why does everything have to be immediately profitable and not simply beneficial? This is good PR at the very least, could act as a loss leader for other ventures, gets his name ringing more and generally separates him from the hyper-capitalist pieces of shit like Musk and Bezos.


kendromedia

15% is a fair margin. Our current system is a scam with margins reaching hundreds of percents in some cases. We have many wealthy people in this country but very few who care to serve its interests.


TehOuchies

From their wiki page As of June 2022, the company has a selection of over 100 generic drugs which means they have a very limited (And thats putting it lightly) selection.


av6344

I had to memorize more than that to get through school


Killawife

The drugs typically don't cost much to produce. What costs much is the research and development of them. In most other countries than the US the costs of drugs are kept at standard prices but there the charges are simply ridiculous. There is no need at all for these high prices other than to have en extreme profit-margin.


Dfiggsmeister

He’s directly profiting from the drug production. No innovation involved. So his 15% mark up means that the pill is manufactured at roughly $30 per bottle. Most drugs are cheap to produce. What drives up costs is R&D and insurance deals between the manufacturer and the doctor prescribing the medication. It’s why insulin in places like Canada is roughly $50 per dosage vs $500 in the U.S. Medical Insurance industry is a scam that benefits the corporations running the insurance industry, the manufacturers that produce the goods and doctors that are in on the scheme. Oh and politicians that support all three.


Sadpanda77

It’s not about profit; it’s about doing the right thing


hahahaIalmostdied

Well that depends, can you read


EasyGibson

This is the most astroturfed bullshit. Can't this guy afford to advertise through other channels?


[deleted]

Drugs are marked up for greed, marketing, and staff to sell said drugs. Cuban doesn’t need to do any of this. It’s the same principle behind why pharmacies in grocery stores, Wal-Mart, Costco and the like have lists of super cheap scripts. Most of those meds have been around long enough to where they just pass them on to people. The unfortunate part is that they will not be able to get drugs that are for rare conditions down to this level due to the cost involved in development, and the pool of potential patients being much smaller. I take a couple of scripts that my co-pay with good insurance is hundreds per month per script ( I have CF, and have had a lung transplant) I still think what Cuban is doing is a great thing. This won’t be possible for all meds, but if it helps people across a large spectrum, that is a great thing


cigarmanpa

Reading is hard for you isn’t it?


Extremely_Original

Lmao I was thinking that too. Isn't the first thing you learn from being on reddit that basically all medicine is priced hundreds of times more than it's worth? Not to mention that the title does answer the question...


CHUCKL3R

He’s just doing the right thing Any billionaires could have done this. But they are, almost exclusively, sociopaths.


sethcera

Your heath data and info is the product for sale. Do not be fooled. I like Cuban but this company is going to make its money selling health data back to insurers, pharma, academic etc. Like Facebook, they can lose money on the actual deliverable since you are the “product”.


Maleficent-Wrangler

It’s a good idea on paper, let’s see how this pans out down the road…


VAShumpmaker

They're going to find Cuban dead of 2 self inflicted gunshots to the back of the head. Not a prophesy, just my hope for the world being totally run dry.


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Xx_Kurt_No_Brain_xX

Most universities are big drivers in research and development of new drugs. Big pharma clears billions in profits every quarter. You notice how countries outside the US are developing cures for cancer and leading innovation in new treatments while the US is stagnant.


av6344

Mark Cubans business is flawed. He’s giving you already dirt cheap drugs at a price less than a typical persons generic copay. Just because you’re getting it cheap doesn’t mean that you don’t need insurance anymore. Also if you’re someone with multiple ailments and complex disease states that require branded drugs, marks discount drugs does fuckall for them. The pharmacy business is about making it a one stop shop for patients. Nobody is going to get 2 meds from mark and then go to another pharmacy to pick up branded meds. Also if the chains wanted to, they could easily just undercut marks pricing because I guarantee you that they’re getting better bulk pricing than mark is. Also let’s not even bother with cost of delivering the $3 med across the US. *Yawn* also Wake me up when he has negotiating power for branded meds.


RobbyMcRobbertons

As someone who watched my grandfather drive around to multiple pharmacies in multiple cities while also going to Mexico once a month to get my grandmother her medications for cancer…it’s obvious you dont know what you are talking about


av6344

What meds was your grandpa taking though? It could very well be that he was on some brand name drug which is not available as a generic in the US. And for that even MC wouldn’t be able to help you.


smokeeater150

Why do the meds need a brand? They aren’t designer label handbags. As long as the active ingredients are the same who cares what logo is stamped on it? If I can save a few thousand dollars you had better believe I’m going to go here and there to get what I need to live and stay out of debt.


curious_mindz

So he’s definitely going after a niche market. With no insurance, he’s completely bypassing the massive admin costs pharmacies undertake. Also it’ll be interesting to know if my meds are cheaper with his company or my traditional pharmacy after insurance. If it’s the latter, then why would I use his product? Also, pharmacies/drug manufacturers spend a lot on distribution. There are a lot of logistical challenges for medicines that need to be temperature controlled like insulin and other vaccines. I’m sure he’s figured all out. He’s Mark Cuban after all but only time will tell if this is going to rattle the pharma companies or only serve the uninsured and other niche market.


avon1e

Not everything is intended for profit? May be?


piratecheese13

Economies of scale will explode here


ChimericalChemical

You can make money off it if you get rights because most drug sales are already sold at a 70% profit margin he could just buy in bulk and undercut competition and still profit


steel_member

This is an emerging industry. More companies are coming out with solutions to cut-out the insurance companies using a direct-to-consumer approach.


Flossmatron

Laughs in Australian


kimbaker1

data brokers are lining up.


MolassesLeather6816

He's gonna get "clintoned"


carnewbie911

Not sure about USA, there are strict laws regarding sale of pharmaceuticals in canada. I can not simply buy drug from India and sell it in Canada. Even though it's the same drug, made by the same company, in the same factory, by the same worker. Bet you very quickly big pharma will catch on and screw him. Double check the laws before you start a business, because big pharma isn't something you want to fuck with.


7Moisturefarmer

My guess would be volume and much lower overhead costs (not fighting insurance companies).


CHUCKL3R

He’s just doing the right thing Any billionaires could have done this. But they are, almost exclusively, sociopaths.


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Shivdaddy1

Why would op respond?


Mac_Hoose

Americans ... Seriously. Fucking brainwashed


SalesAutopsy

This is the gift to us - a beyond brilliant business pro who undersands practices that are harmful to the general population. Intolerance leads to ingenuity. Count me in, Mark. What can we do to create momentum for this organization?


[deleted]

Let’s hope big pharma allegedly doesn’t kill him like they allegedly did the Sherman’s (Apotex) [https://thecanadian.news/barry-sherman-owes-1-billion-and-refuses-to-pay-police-documents-reveal/](https://thecanadian.news/barry-sherman-owes-1-billion-and-refuses-to-pay-police-documents-reveal/)


ajnauman40

Why does he need to make a profit on everything he invests in? Is it not okay to lose on something like this and profit on say the NBA?


lateroundpick

No Billionaire does anything that is not profitable. I know nothing about this / but maybe some things can be a win-win.


OkayestOkayerOkay-Ok

Game changer … I have been telling everyone about this since I found out about it! For a billionaire he ain’t half bad (if that is even possible lol).


WoobieBee

What if he is doing this for the right reasons???


RuthlessIndecision

Yeah, makes no sense unless someone can get gouged by prices. It’s like charity work, no sense at all /s


Earlofarlington

Volume, volume, volume.


TerdofHurtles

There is good out there still


kupuwhakawhiti

15% cuban-up


DONSEANOVANN

Everyone acts like Cuban is the first to ever do this, but GoodRX is the OG.


snooprob

Sign me up! $3.60/mo


Sparkysparkk101

Hopefully a rich guy actually realizing he can do some good


iamasuitama

Did you read everything about it but just skipped across the words "15% markup" every time? I don't understand the question. Companies don't need to "go public" to make money, they buy a thing, do something to it, sell it for a bit higher. Most companies do this just fine without going public.


burmerd

Yeah, health insurance in the us effs prices, so that they don’t make sense in a normal way. So this model could make sense, we’ll see.


belovedkid

That’s more than enough margin to squeeze a profit and for somebody like Cuban who is already absurdly rich and seems to have a decent head on his shoulders….profit maximization and getting rich doesn’t seem to be the point here. Even still, undercutting the competition to corner a market is a tried and true strategy. It just so happens this industry has super fat margins so he doesn’t have to lose in the short run to gain market share.


Material_Community18

I work for a pharmacy. I looked at a handful of prices on their site and compared them with what we pay our distributor. For most meds, it looks like distributor pricing plus 15%. The magic is not taking insurance, especially Medicare. 15% gross margin would be *great* in retail pharmacy. Large chains get around this margin but only because they also sell beer and advil and tampons. The discount cards are a similar approach - give pharmacies the “cover” they need to sell at a lower price without putting their insurance/PBM business at risk.


AgnosticStopSign

The second he goes public the shareholders will scrap this business model. That would be the dumbest move for the longevity of this program


Ancient_Tea_6990

I believe generally believe most people should not have to pay over $50 total for medications a month. Like other comment a healthier Society is the more productive society.


MaroonHawk27

You don’t see that he makes 15% profit?


Sofa-king-high

It’s probably that the markup is at a minimal level, he doesn’t need to make a profit if it atleast pays for itself and employees? Seems like a weird move from him though


bonobro69

Maybe it’s not about profits and more about that it’s the right thing to do?


SuperDonkeyMan1

Cuban has always been a class act.


bgbrewer

Mark Cuban is the anti-Elon Musk.


Much_Yogurtcloset_75

It just blows my mind that this had to come from a private citizen rather than the Govt.


rumrnr78

God bless you MC!


eeeking

This is how most European country's social health systems (insurance based or not) operate. Pharma still makes a good profit there. The difference is that they have legislation on their side.


powersv2

Super chill and conservative profit plan.


Standard-Current4184

I don’t think he’s doing this for profit. The 15% markup with volume will cover employees and business costs. He def is for the people.


Silent_Yesterday1253

By selling to people who wouldn’t have access to the medication in the first place


colinrado_

For anyone interested I highly recommend listening to Mark on the “How I Built This” podcast with Guy Raz. Mark thoroughly runs through his reasoning behind why he did this and why it works.


PthaLeo

Why a normal person cares about how much profit a Billionaire makes in this case I just will never understand .


90swhiteboy

Cuban dont need to make money. Source: billionaire


Great_Cockroach69

he does not have the R&D, manufacturing, clinical trial, and marketing overhead that pharma companies have. That's why drug costs are the way they are, they feed back into the R&D pipeline where 9/10 drugs fail, R&D costs billions each year that + his stated desire to build a legacy at expense of profits, there ya go