How Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drug Company Could Disrupt 'Big Pharma' - CobCast Ep. 17

Mark Cuban’s new online pharmacy is slashing drug prices for 100 different generic medications. Its main goal is affordability for consumers, and some think Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Co. is just the kind of disruption “Big Pharma” needs in the U.S.

Cost Plus Drug ditches the middleman, the pharmacy benefit management companies. Those help negotiate benefits for employers, health insurers and government health programs. These could include rebates and discounts.

These companies have been criticized for a lack of transparency. Most times, you can’t tell how much they’re making on rebates and how much they’re actually saving customers.

Cuban’s company shines a light on how these companies contribute to inflated drug prices. Cost Plus Drug buys the medications at wholesale and sells it at the manufacturing prices with a flat 15% markup and a pharmacist fee.

On this episode, I talk to Paul Segeert, managing partner at the healthcare consulting company PCS Advisers, to help put this into perspective. How big of a deal is Mark Cuban’s new company in disprupting big pharma? Segeert’s going to help answer that question.

I’ll also be speaking with Zack Zeller, the co-founder and president of ScriptCo, another company looking to drive drug prices down for the consumer.

This episode is an audio adaptation of reporting I've done for the Dallas Observer. It is recorded and produced by me.