Dallas owner Mark Cuban will be working with pharmaceutical companies for his new online drugstore according to an Alive article from February 7 which reports,
“Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company explains on its website it sets its prices by negotiating directly with the manufacturer and then adds a 15% markup, a $3 fee for pharmacy labor and the cost of shipping. The company does not accept insurance but will accept a Health Savings Account or Flexible Spending Account card to pay for orders. It has carried a selection of generic medication since it opened in January, and can currently deliver in every U.S. state but North Carolina.
“We essentially work with pharmaceutical companies to negotiate the best prices we can,” Oshmyansky said. “The details of the licensing vary from state-to-state. In some states, we register as a ‘virtual’ entity since we don’t have physical warehouses. About 17 states or so grant us reciprocity for our Texas wholesaler license without getting another specific license. We have dedicated regulatory staff to make sure we are in compliance with all state and federal requirements.”
“We then sell our products to TruePill,” Oshmyansky said. “They in turn are licensed in every state as a mail-order pharmacy, and they fulfill orders. They agree to pass on our pricing plus $3 pharmacist fee and use our branding.”
Alex Oshmyansky, CEO of the Cost Plus Drug Company, already set his eyes on 1000 prescription drugs before 2023 enters as he details their advantage over traditional pharmaceutical companies according to a Dallas Morning News article from February 1. They say,
“I’m an entrepreneur, I’m meant to be optimistic. But even I couldn’t have predicted the interest in our products this past week and a half, so I think now with that wind in our back, we can grow a lot faster than initially anticipated,” Oshmyansky told The Dallas Morning News at a Tuesday event for the facility’s topping out.
“One of the problems with working with these entities called pharmaceutical benefit managers is they make you mark up your price a lot so that they can negotiate you back down,” Oshmyansky said. “That process costs so much money that it may make us double or triple even the price of our drugs and we refuse to do that.”
“These are sort of small enough products that existing vendors don’t really go out of their way to look for great pricing,” Oshmyansky said. “We have very aggressive pricing that kind of beats everybody else.”
Oshmyansky describes this venture as a parallel version of the supply chain but ponders on transparency at every stage of the transaction. Furthermore, he emphasizes the importance of being transformative and innovative especially during these hard times.