The Daily Populous Wednesday December 11st, 2024 night edition
Authored by wired.com and submitted by wiredmagazine

When Mark Cuban is feeling spicy, he’ll always let you know. The billionaire businessman, basketball owner, and Shark Tank impresario lit up WIRED’s The Big Interview event on Tuesday, dropping hot takes about Elon Musk, the pharmaceutical industry, and why he thinks “couch fucking” and Gary Gensler’s crypto policy cost Kamala Harris the election.

Chatting with WIRED senior writer Lauren Goode, Cuban touted the trajectory of Cost Plus Drugs, the pharmaceutical company he cofounded in 2022. By offering transparency on costs and pricing policies, Cuban says his company has been able to disrupt the drug industry, offering consumers drugs like Droxidopa for something like $20 per month versus the more than $3,000 a month uninsured patients were being quoted.

“We’ve lowered the price of [one of our 2,500 medications] every single weekday for 18 months,” Cuban boasted, saying the company has also found great success in publishing its entire price list, something that’s always been incredibly hard to obtain from other drug providers for consumers and researchers alike.

Now, Cuban says, studies have come out showing that if Medicare bought, for instance, nine specific drugs from Cost Plus Drugs instead of their other sources, the government would save billions of dollars, something that not only shows the bloat of the health care system but also the tangible effect that one well-funded company can have.

It’s not that Cuban’s not making money on Cost Plus Drugs, either, because he is. He could be making more, he told Goode, but as he put it, “How much fucking money do I need? I’m not trying to land on Mars.”

The crack, presumably directed at Elon Musk, was just one of several remarks Cuban made about the billionaire X owner. For one, he spoke about his own move from X to Bluesky in recent months, saying that he thinks it’s an overall “existential moment” for Musk’s platform.

Because of Bluesky’s troll-blocking capabilities and what Cuban calls more engagement-friendly policies, he says he’s found it much easier to engage there, whether it’s Kamala Harris, cryptocurrency, or the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, in which he owns a minority stake. “If you want to know what Elon thinks, Twitter’s amazing,” Cuban joked, but added that he thinks Bluesky is more of a true “social network” in comparison.

virtualgravities on December 10th, 2024 at 15:29 UTC »

As a cost plus drugs customer myself I approve this message.

I was laid off from my job back in 2023. And lost my health insurance. I was taking migraine medication and I believe they were charging something like 90 bucks for 8 pills (because that’s the amount my healthcare would only allow). I can now get that same medication from C+D for $20 and I can get 60.

I get alerts on refills, i get my deliveries on time, super quick fulfillment requests.

Even if you have health insurance. I highly highly recommend C+D.

ithinkitslupis on December 10th, 2024 at 15:01 UTC »

It's crazy that drug prices were so fucked that Cost Plus Drugs feels like a charity. They're charging what the drugs should cost and still making a healthy profit.

Now we should find a way to extend that to all healthcare and reduce the corporate greed highway robbery as well if we can't get single payer.

wiredmagazine on December 10th, 2024 at 14:48 UTC »

Chatting with WIRED senior writer Lauren Goode, Cuban touted the trajectory of Cost Plus Drugs, the pharmaceutical company he cofounded in 2022. By offering transparency on costs and pricing policies, Cuban says his company has been able to disrupt the drug industry, offering consumers drugs like Droxidopa for something like $20 per month versus the more than $3,000 a month uninsured patients were being quoted.

“We’ve lowered the price of [one of our 2,500 medications] every single weekday for 18 months,” Cuban boasted, saying the company has also found great success in publishing its entire price list, something that’s always been incredibly hard to obtain from other drug providers for consumers and researchers alike.

Now, Cuban says, studies have come out showing that if Medicare bought, for instance, nine specific drugs from Cost Plus Drugs instead of their other sources, the government would save billions of dollars, something that not only shows the bloat of the health care system but also the tangible effect that one well-funded company can have.

It’s not that Cuban’s not making money on Cost Plus Drugs, either, because he is. He could be making more, he told Goode, but as he put it, “How much fucking money do I need? I’m not trying to land on Mars.”

Read the full story: https://www.wired.com/story/big-interview-mark-cuban-2024/