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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

#101

Post by amluto »

alphabettsy wrote: post #87
briHass wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm concerned that Mark Cuban is capitalizing on people's lack of understanding about how insurance works and how easy it can be to look up drug prices (use your insurance company's website or just pick up the phone and call your pharmacy, they'll check for you) That certainly hasn't been my experience. Most pharmacies I've tried this with need to actually 'fill' the script and run it through insurance to get a fina…

> The sad thing is, all these pharmacies know about GoodRx and other discount providers. They could stop playing games and just run all scripts through these providers to get a 'cash price', but they don't. They aren’t allowed to contractually. The PBMs and insurance companies make pharmacies sign contracts that forbid them from doing this. They also forbid pharmacies from telling customers if it would be cheaper to…

It seems to me that the FTC should be able to fix at least some of this.

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

#102

Post by csdvrx »

lelandfe wrote: post #92
alphabettsy wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were already many companies doing this.

Yeah. It seems the difference here is (supposedly) this sentiment: > "People always ask, well why didn't somebody do this before? The reality is there's so much money there, it's hard not to be greedy," Mr. Cuban said > "But I won't. I've got enough money. I'd rather f— up the drug industry in every way possible."

> "But I won't. I've got enough money. I'd rather f— up the drug industry in every way possible."

I like that sentiment!

I also like it's coming from a capitalist VC, with a profit incentive!

And I love I won't have to bother with insurance and stuff: yes, I could save $5 here and there, but no, I don't really care, and I'm not sure it's worth dealing with the insurance company who'll gather the information and look for various creative ways to compile and use the information against their clients (say, if you take tobacco cessation drugs, birth control, etc)

Yes, I know there are various laws on the books that in theory protect patients against that, but as we've seen with the consequences for say Experian data leaks, the reputational risk for Cuban himself look like a much stronger incentive that for say, Walmart or Costco or whatever company doesn't bear the investor name.

So I think Cuban will have my business!

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

#103

Post by csdvrx »

ipaddr wrote: post #96
lelandfe wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. It seems the difference here is (supposedly) this sentiment: > "People always ask, well why didn't somebody do this before? The reality is there's so much money there, it's hard not to be greedy," Mr. Cuban said > "But I won't. I've got enough money. I'd rather f— up the drug industry in every way possible."

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.

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

#104

Post by refurb »

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…

Yup, as someone who had some experience in the industry, this screams naivety.

Generic drugs are pumped out for pennies a pill by a pre-existing infrastructure across the globe. Mark will be buying from them, not spending billions trying to replicate manufacturing plants and FDA agreements.

In essence it’s a cash-only pharmacy for cheap generic drugs - not that different than what Walmart and Target do with their $4/month prescription drug program.

Big pharma won’t give a shit because Mark can’t make his own generic versions due to IP.

He might make a difference for those weird edge cases like Daraprim (sp?) where the market is so small, supply is constrained, so mark ups are huge. But those are weird edge cases that don’t last long.

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

#105

Post by ev1 »

aaaaaaaaaaab wrote: post #62
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FWIW I thought this meant that it was $4 because of “your insurance” or “deductible” but I think you meant it’s $4 for people that aren’t insured? And people that are insured get it for free? No, it's $4 retail at Walmart. $10 for a 3-month supply. People with insurance might also pay the $4 if they haven't reached their insurance deductible (same concept as car/home insurance deductible). Insured people still pay…

>Insured people still pay some co-insurance, up until their out-of-pocket maximum. I honestly don’t know what this sentence means, and I’m glad I don’t need to deal with such things in the UK.

Imagine you opted for the cheap $500/month plan. You might have to pay 50% or 100% of all costs until you reach your maximum, which might be 5 digits and resets at least annually. Don't forget the "out of network" vs "in network" separation/cost/caps, where your physical hospital may be in network but a provider that works there is billed out of network.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-deductible_health_plan

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

#106

Post by AlphaSquared »

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?

I live in Pakistan :)

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

#107

Post by BurningFrog »

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…

> just pick up the phone and call your pharmacy

It's 2022, and if your prices are not on a web page, they're clearly not a selling point.

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

#109

Post by amluto »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #77
gm wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what your point is: It seems you are cherrypicking and then generalizing. For example Duloxetine (generic for Cymbalta) is $4 at CostPlus and $15 at the Walmart link. That in and of itself really does not prove anything either. I may be wrong, though, it's just one additional data point. Maybe you can do the analysis you mention and publish it? The worst that will happen is that all us laypeople will be…

> I think though that CostPlus, if nothing else, has opened the eyes of a great many people who just assumed medicine was like any other product where the manufacturer controls the price Like any other product? There are zero products like that. Manufacturers aren't legally able to control the price even if they propose a contract with a resale price clause. That's why everything has a "manufacturer's suggested retai…

I don’t know anything about the legality, but UMRP is very common.

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

#110

Post by MaxLeiter »

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…

Many people prefer dealing with cash and don’t want to go to the pharmacy.
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