Medicare Could Save Billions Of Dollars Annually If They Buy Drugs From Mark Cuban’s Pharmacy

With all eyes on trying to help rundown American consumers have better options for healthcare, scientists have recently published a paper that shares how the government health insurance provider, Medicare, could save $3.6 billion annually if they bought 77 types of generic medications from Mark Cuban’s drug company.

Mark Cuban, billionaire entrepreneur and Shark Tank shark founded the company “Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company” just last year. His mission statement is to price down widely-prescribed medications by providing generic versions with less overhead.

Cuban’s drugs are priced basically on the cost of ingredients and manufacturing, plus ‘a 15% margin, $3 pharmacy dispensing fee, and $5 shipping fee.’ Because of this, it often lessens the usual cost of brand name company drugs by half or at times, even a quarter.

Through the sale of generic ingredients that don’t have patented manufacturing or formulas has managed to make the prices drop for such medications like Actos, a drug that is prescribed mostly to patients with diabetes that tends to retail at $74.40, or $6.60 for 30 pills.

One study found that America spends the most on drugs, exceeding all other countries in medication costs, and here’s why.

Due to the FDA’s requirement to prove efficacy of the drugs, and not just safety, the costs of a pharmaceutical company sending their drug through the FDA stage I, II, and III trials is usually a 10-figure investment. Moreover, once they pass the tests, patent and other intellectual property laws that were enacted many years ago by the federal government also allows the drug company to patent particular methods to make the drug.

Finally, the artificial monopolies are then awarded by the FDA to drug companies for particular drugs, removing the possibility of any market force that would be capable of regulating these prices. With a per-capita spending of $858 on pharmaceutical drugs, these companies are begging the government to undo the laws that they put together in the first place to help lower the price of medications.

The new Harvard study concluded that “our findings suggest that Medicare is overpaying for many generic drugs.” Moreover, a CNET report shares that since this publication came out, Plus Drugs has since added a number of medications to their roster. The lead study author, Hassan Leilani, even said that the $3.6 billion is probably a conservative estimate at best.