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Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

beckershospitalreview.com

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Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#111

Post by renewiltord »

enjoyyourlife wrote: post #93
AlphaSquared wrote: post #89

The prices for these drugs is ridiculous. My kids vere prescribed Ventolin this winter due smog related illnesses. Looking at price of a Ventolin inhaler (90mcg) even on Cuban's website ( https://costplusdrugs.com/medications/albuterol-90mcg-inhale... ) it costs $43 The same thing costs less than $2 in Pakistan for the Glaxo Smith Kline version. https://www.emeds.pk/ventolin

Are you going to go to Pakistan to buy it?

Haha no. I get them muled over from India with a prescription or I’d go get them myself. Only suckers and rich people pay American rates.

I have so many antibiotics and controlled substances you’d be better off raiding me over your local Walgreens in a zombie apocalypse.

Seriously, sometimes I read about people dying of lack of access to insulin and it blows my mind. It’s one payday loan spent on the round trip flight and 30 hrs and you have cheap medication.

Even when folks here were whining that HCQ was going to be in “a shortage”, I just bought some Plaquenil from there. Folks really like building cages and then just die in them. Frankly confusing but hey it’s your life.

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#112

Post by csdvrx »

akomtu wrote: post #64
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #7

On one hand, we should obviously applaud anyone doing anything to bring down drug prices. On the other hand, I'm increasingly uncomfortable with just how much free marketing and PR is being applied to the "Mark Cuban Pharmacy" without much critical examination of what's going on here. Taking one of the examples straight from their homepage: They will sell you 30 Prozac tablets for $3.90: https://costplusdrugs.com/med…

Your walmart link is quite a discovery for me. I've always been suspicious when my pharmacy congratulates me on saving whopping 200 bucks on my generic meds, but I couldn't have imagined that a one year supply of this stuff can be had for under 40 bucks at walmart. In other words, my pharmacy's markup exceeds 50x of the original price (probably 100x since they buy it in bulk).

> In other words, my pharmacy's markup exceeds 50x of the original price (probably 100x since they buy it in bulk).

A cool plot twist would be if your pharmacy purchased the drugs from Walmart, and just put them in a cute orange box with a nice sticker showing their name :)

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#113

Post by ALittleLight »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #83
ALittleLight wrote: post #76

Either I don't understand the phrase "Vertical integration" or Mark Cuban doesn't. Cuban says "We basically created a vertically integrated manufacturing company." But, they don't do manufacturing, because later Cuban says "The manufacturers love what we're doing for that reason". They also apparently don't do the pharmacy aspect because Cuban says his company "charges a $3 pharmacy fee to pay the pharmacists it work…

They plan to both manufacture and resell. >15% markup plus pharmacy fee plus shipping and handling. This is the intent, and still cuts out at least 2 middle men between consumers and manufacturers: the insurance company and pharmacy benefit managers.

It doesn't cut out any middlemen. It adds one middleman - Mark Cuban. Literally all he is doing is buying wholesale and selling retail with a markup. He's even powered by an existing online pharmacy company (truepill).

If you look up details about his factory it's supposed to be built sometime next year. On Google maps, looking at the address, I wasn't able to see any evidence of this place existing. It's also supposed to employ 60-80 people, which, seems small to take on drug manufacturing.

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#114

Post by adam_arthur »

jsnk wrote: post #60

This is just a rant. I want Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple, Walmart, all the so called evil multinational corps, billionaires like Cuban, Gates, Musk, Zuckerberg & Co. and the the government to get into American healthcare industry and dismantle the multi trillion dollars racket, change it into something functional and useful for the people. I don't care if it will mean millions of people in the insurance, hospital…

There are a lot of "obvious" things in medicine that could be easily solved if there were political will. The reason most things are expensive is due to existing regulations that add unnecessary hurdles.

For example, prescription glasses can be made for a few dollars, but often cost over $100 and you have to pay to see the optometrist for a prescription.

In reality, you could walk up to an automated machine, have it assess your vision, and pay $10-$20 for a pair of glasses. This has actually been proven in other countries that allow you to buy glasses without a prescription. In a competitive market, price of a good tends to trend towards marginal cost of production... which is clearly not the case in a lot of medicine/vision etc.

Also, my copay for one of the medicine's on Cuban's site is $50, but on the site it's $3. Why is this? Seems some exploitation of incomplete information... could be fixed through regulation... like requiring pharmacies to show pricing of generics when filling prescriptions.

Also hospitals don't list pricing... though there was a rule passed under the Trump admin that requires them to do so. Not sure if this is in an easily consumable format yet.

So I agree with your sentiment, but don't think it can be disrupted without changes in law. Primarily there is way too much information asymmetry in all areas of medical care

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#115

Post by pc86 »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #61
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’d pay $5 not to drive. Many normal pharmacies also have mail-order options. My neighborhood pharmacy includes free shipping, whereas Mark Cuban charges an extra $5. I'm baffled that so many people are consuming Mark Cuban's marketing/PR without questioning if it's really the cheapest option. It's like everyone read the press releases and just decided it sounds correct.

Many normal pharmacies also have mail-order options. Which are often very annoying to use. I have tried many times to get my pharmacy to deliver by mail. It typically works for a few months, then they stop bothering, or fail to request a refill until I call them, or mumble something about the drug not being legal to ship even though it was successfully delivered earlier by this pharmacy and by other mail-order pharma…

When can we stop with the "during a pandemic" FUD? It's been well over two years. Everyone who is getting vaccinated is vaccinated. Vaccines and tests are widely available for free. At some point you need to stop being afraid of standing next to people in line.

I'm triple vaxxed and have no problem with mask or vaccine mandates where they make sense. But stuff like "oh you want me to use a stylus in a pandemic?!?" or putting on a mask while you walk 10 feet to a restaurant table are just silly.

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#116

Post by daniel-cussen »

renewiltord wrote: post #91
jsnk wrote: post #60

This is just a rant. I want Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple, Walmart, all the so called evil multinational corps, billionaires like Cuban, Gates, Musk, Zuckerberg & Co. and the the government to get into American healthcare industry and dismantle the multi trillion dollars racket, change it into something functional and useful for the people. I don't care if it will mean millions of people in the insurance, hospital…

Those companies, especially Amazon; Google; and Apple, are only evil MNCs on HN/Reddit and media (mainstream or otherwise). In the real world, these are America’s most trusted and beloved brands. Brand loyalty is high for all three and if they announce they’re going to make anything, the country as a whole is excited to see what comes of it. Irrespective of whether they listen to Fox or CNN, people know from their li…

All three have been very virtuous for very long segments of time in many aspects of their work, and there are many such segments of time. Less virtuous than many people I know, but more than a great many organizations. That said I don't have enough visibility to judge them with less than about a decade of hindsight.

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#117

Post by ipaddr »

treis wrote: post #75
toomuchtodo wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In America, it is a charity effectively to provide what is essentially a public service by “only” taking a 15% cut on generics when other manufacturers are selling at magnitudes higher costs. It’s Costco for generic meds. No one calls Costco a charity, but their employees and customers love them for being fair and their business is held up as an example of how to create value from customer loyalty. And they still gen…

(1) His prices aren't really any better than retail pharmacy with GoodRx. The generics for little money is well covered. (2) Costco actually does shit. They build buildings, hire pharmacists, buy inventory in bulk, and sell it to you in the store. Cuban has a website that takes 3 months to build and a little bit of transaction risk.

Do you want to pay the membership fee and a premium so they can build buildings, employ pharmacists to buy/finance/store/manage a large inventory or do you want to skip that and get the meds sent to you?

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#118

Post by friedturkey »

csdvrx wrote: post #103
ipaddr wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a person with enough money he seems to work harder than he should to obtain more and more.

> For a person with enough money he seems to work harder than he should to obtain more and more. Some people like to max their points in videogames. Other like to max their $ in real life. The beauty of capitalism is that the effort of the latter end up benefiting us all.

Capitalism is what got America into its health care mess. Other countries aren't paying thousands for simple pills or insulin.

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#119

Post by kylehotchkiss »

renewiltord wrote: post #111
enjoyyourlife wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you going to go to Pakistan to buy it?

Haha no. I get them muled over from India with a prescription or I’d go get them myself. Only suckers and rich people pay American rates. I have so many antibiotics and controlled substances you’d be better off raiding me over your local Walgreens in a zombie apocalypse. Seriously, sometimes I read about people dying of lack of access to insulin and it blows my mind. It’s one payday loan spent on the round trip fligh…

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/5-tips-travel... The government's attitude appears to be against muling medicines over (I realize that people still do it all the time).

Self-prescribing antibiotics is not great for antibiotic resistance - Al Jazeera has done some great reporting on how Indian pharmacies loose prescription checks or doctors overambitious antibiotic prescriptions have caused a rise in antibiotic resistant superbugs (https://www.aljazeera.com/program/101-east/2016/8/9/the-rise...) - sure they're easy to get, but there's been a tremendous health cost in India because of that

But not only "suckers and rich people" pay American rates - the people who were born here without foreign ties do it all the time!

And finally, India just recently opened for tourism, plus they're not doing visa on arrivals yet, how can people get a payday loan, passport, visa via embassy, and a whole trip in so casually?

Edit: can't you just do everything you mentioned above in Mexico anyways?

Re: Mark Cuban's pharmacy started with a cold email

#120

Post by danachow »

adam_arthur wrote: post #95
s1artibartfast wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They plan to both manufacture and resell. >15% markup plus pharmacy fee plus shipping and handling. This is the intent, and still cuts out at least 2 middle men between consumers and manufacturers: the insurance company and pharmacy benefit managers.

Should cut out the doctors for most of these too... Or at least allow people to continue to renew their medications after prescribed one time, rather than requiring further doctor's visits. Most things in medicine are expensive due to legal monopolies/improper regulations. e.g. no reason you shouldn't be able to buy prescription glasses for $10-20 dollars off the shelf. The main problem with medical costs is that it'…

I’m not saying freer markets in some aspects of medicine would be better - but the libertarian dream in medicine is probably very naive and fails to learn from history to boot (medicine, especially pharm was much freer 120 years ago - it didn’t work out too well).

And of the big problems in medicine - a prescription for glasses (which isn’t really a medical service in the US - optometry is not a medical profession) just doesn’t register for me - you can order glasses online without a prescription if you are so inclined.

Meanwhile there isn’t any realistic libertarian solution to allocation or access to complex medical care - and just hand waving “free markets” doesn’t make it so.

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