Mark Cuban Plans Low-Cost Generic Drugs With Pharma Startup

(Bloomberg) -- Mark Cuban is getting involved in generic drugs.

The Dallas Mavericks owner has attached his name to a company that will produce low-cost versions of expensive generic drugs. The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company pledges “to provide radical transparency” in how it prices its drugs.

The company will manufacture, distribute, and market its drugs to pharmacies and add a flat 15% margin to get wholesale prices.

The first drug to be produced is albendazole, an anti-parasitic pill that can retail for over $400 per tablet. The company plans to make and distribute the drug for about $13, charge $15 as a wholesale price and set a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $20 per tablet, according to the company’s website.

“This is our first step towards taking on the pricing of generic drugs,” Cuban tweeted Wednesday.

“We have this model in health care where you’re not allowed to ask the price of things upfront, which would be crazy in any other industry,” Chief Executive Officer Alex Oshmyansky, a practicing radiologist, said in an interview Wednesday.

The new venture is hoping to introduce over 100 drugs by the end of 2021 and build a pharmaceutical factory in Dallas, Texas, by 2022, according to the startup’s website. Oshmyansky presented a more scaled-down vision, saying that the aim is to have at least a handful of drugs available by the end of the year.

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