What Is Cost Plus Drugs?

Mark Cuban launched CostPlusDrugs.com on January 19, 2022 with 111 generic medications and no idea what demand would look like. Talking about the site made it blow up, manufacturers widened their portfolios, and the catalog now holds about 4,000 products, with the business up and to the right every week. The hardest job is keeping up.

Same-day pickup needed a second offer, TeamCubanCard.com, a discount card Mark Cuban says he did not name. It works at 17,000 affiliated pharmacies. Affiliate pharmacies get a $12 fill fee, so a $5 statin plus $12 is cheaper somewhere else, though buyers can still use an independent pharmacy for the cheap drugs. Specialty generics and biosimilars are much cheaper, and biosimilars and insulin that need cold shipping cost less when picked up locally.

Dallas manufacturing makes generic drugs on the FDA short-supply list, including pediatric cancer drugs, Pitocin, and epinephrine for hospitals. AI and robotics shrank a football-field plant into 5,000 square feet and turn a drug every four hours: a six-month supply, then the next drug. Hospitals and clinics buy the output. Five years of the same robotics and AI now fit in pods the size of a tractor trailer that ship anywhere. The government was the first customer. The first pod went out recently, a second is on order, and more follow, so an ecological disaster can get one sent to FEMA if FEMA is around.