Since launching in January 2021 with about 100 generics, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. now offers more than 2,000 drugs, including about a dozen brand-name medications.
The company has also grown to offer discounted drug prices through more than 4,000 affiliated pharmacies, including those in Kroger and Meijer grocery stores.
Cost Plus Drugs is targeting inflated drug prices through multiple lenses. It markets medications at their acquisition cost and adds a $5 shipping fee, a $5 pharmacy labor fee and a 15% markup. Other pharmaceutical companies are taking notice of the transparency marketing effect.
The company's conservative drug pricing model is buttressed with a "yes, and" approach to its collaborations and partnerships, which include four pharmacy benefit managers.
In recent months, Cost Plus Drugs has struck collaboration deals with an elderly care business, two fertility health companies, a digital health company and a mail-order pharmacy.
"Who is changing healthcare this new year? @costplusdrugs is!" Mark Cuban, co-founder of the company, posted Jan. 1 on X.
Cost Plus Drugs has yet to open its drug manufacturing facility in Dallas, which will focus on producing injectables that often fall to supply shortages. The $11 million plant was originally planned to open in late 2022. In October, Mr. Cuban told Becker's the facility is "getting closer" to opening but declined to share a projected date.