Mark Cuban launches Prescription drug site

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CincyDave Makes perfect sense now. Thanks for clarifying!

Ditto!

[Chuckanut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Letj Doesn’t it seem weird that there’s no search function so you can’t query to see if they have your drug by name search without having to select a category?

Hopefully, as the site is used by more and more people it will evolve to be easier to use. At the beginning, simple is better. Software that confuses and/or overwhelms the user is not good.

[Sojourner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sengsational Looks good. I randomly selected 10 entries and compared to GoodRx pricing at a few local pharmacies. Drug Costco C V S Grocery Entecavir (Generic for Baraclude) 73% 737% 71% Diclofenac Sodium (Generic for Voltaren) 91% 137% 99% Lovastatin (Generic for Mevacor) 307% 324% 148% Metformin Extended Release (ER) (Generic for Glucophage XR) 314% 542% 185% Ropinirole Extended Release (ER) (Generic for Requip XL) 112% 159% 129% Losartan / HCTZ (Generic for Hyzaar) 444% 580% 253% Azithromycin (Generic for Zithromax) 89% 135% 94% Amoxicillin / Clavulanate (Generic for Augmentin) 125% 207% 106% Clopidogrel (Generic for Plavix) 196% 598% 224% Memantine (Generic for Namenda) 281% 1817% 309%

This looks good on the surface, but I wonder what the actual dollar savings are for the most commonly prescribed drugs. I mean, it's pretty eye-catching to see that this new service is charging, say, 50% less for a drug than you could get using GoodRx. But if that means paying $5/month instead of $10, it's hardly life changing. Hopefully, the list will grow over time to include drugs that typically cost $100+ per month.

EDIT TO ADD: I just noticed that the dollar savings for each drug is listed in the far right column on the CostPlusDrugs site. HOWEVER, that is the savings compared to the full retail price. For example, they claim you can save $672 (per month?) on aripiprazole (generic Abilify). Yet by using GoodRx you'd pay only about $14 for a one month supply, versus $6 from CostPlusDrugs.

[Gotadimple]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fermion Ok, yeah big pharmacies lol, not big pharmaceuticals.

Nope! But close. Drugs, who makes them, who dispenses them, who pays for them is a very complex problem to understand. Two issues here, and not saying who Mark Cuban is trying to take on.

1. Not pharmacies, but pharmacy benefit managers (PBM). These are companies that negotiate prices for drugs for private insurers (not government like Medicaid or Medicare who deal direct). Then the insurers contract with the PBM to develop their formularies (what drugs are covered by insurance).

PBMs make the mega-$, pharmacies merely get a dispensing fee (i.e., $1 per script). So large pharmacies like Walgreens earn based on the volume of prescriptions dispensed. Pharmacies don't pay for the drugs dispensed to those using insurance benefits (PBMs and their insurance partners, and Medicaid, and Medicare) - the PBMs pay.

2. Pharmacies do pay for drugs dispensed to those who have no insurance or choose to not use their insurance because the PBM price is higher than GoodRx et al. GoodRx simply aggregates pricing from pharmacies willing to share their pricing for prescriptions that they sell to the public. So the profit for a pharmacy is in serving the public, which is why an aggregator like GoodRx exists.

Hope that wasn't too confusing!

[Gotadimple]

If you haven't read the About page at the CostPlus Drug site, please consider looking at it.

First there is the mission statement from Mark Cuban. Could be political, maybe not.
Then the statement from the CEO, also could be political or maybe not.
Then come the details. CostPlus is not a pharmacy. They contract with a mail order pharmacy.
Then comes the promise. Someday soon they will be making their own drugs in Texas.

I don't know what to think about any of this. The mail order pharmacy is only accredited through next year, and many compounding pharmacies can make drugs today, just not in large quantities.

- Rita

[sengsational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sojourner This looks good on the surface, but I wonder what the actual dollar savings are for the most commonly prescribed drugs. I mean, it's pretty eye-catching to see that this new service is charging, say, 50% less for a drug than you could get using GoodRx. But if that means paying $5/month instead of $10, it's hardly life changing. Hopefully, the list will grow over time to include drugs that typically cost $100+ per month.

Although the goal of the original table was to be a quick, clear idea about the pricing on the MC site, I see that I've failed in that regard I think you are astute in your observation about relative vs absolute dollars. Only in a few cases were the examples that I picked save more than $100/yr.

The value in the table is the ANNUAL SAVINGS you'd get buying on the MC site. So if it's negative, the local store was cheaper. If it's positive and you bought from the MC site, the value is what you'd save over the span of a year.

Drug	Costco	C V S	Grocery
Amlodipine (Generic for Norvasc)	-$150	$3529	-$160
Ropinirole (Generic for Requip)	-$16	$65	-$1
Ezetimibe (Generic for Zetia)	$97	$105	$23
Paroxetine (Generic for Paxil)	$115	$239	$46
Furosemide (Generic for Lasix)	$25	$128	$62
Levetiracetam Extended Release (ER) (Generic for Keppra XR)	$186	$259	$83
Nifedipine Extended Release (ER) (Generic for Procardia XL)	-$15	$47	-$8
Mirtazapine (Generic for Remeron SolTab)	$36	$154	$9
Trazodone (Generic for Desyrel)	$65	$340	$85
Cyclobenzaprine Extended Release (ER) (Generic for Amrix)	$98	$927	$113

[GTFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gotadimple Then comes the promise. Someday soon they will be making their own drugs in Texas.

I really hope this is the case - I'm taking a delayed release drug now that most pharmacies are getting from China and it doesn't work as intended, i.e. the drug is released over the first 4-6 hours not 24.

The same generic from a US or Indian manufacturer works well, so I now have to hunt for pharmacies that carry one of them. And that list is shrinking.

[mystang52]

This sure seems like a great business opportunity, filling a niche for that population without insurance, presumably competing with GoodRx. I suspect the current somewhat limited list of available drugs will increase as the business grows.

[Errollyn]

Clark Howard released an interview yesterday with Mark Cuban about Cost Plus Drugs. Really interesting and I'll be buying my prescriptions there from now on.

[freedomatlast]

Looks like he's just copying what GeniusRX has been doing for years. Quick research shows CostPlus has slightly higher prices, with less of a selection and a website that isn't as good. Not sure why anyone would want to switch to CostPlus from GeniusRX. GeniusRX has no fill fees and no shipping or delivery fees.

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Errollyn Clark Howard released an interview yesterday with Mark Cuban about Cost Plus Drugs. Really interesting and I'll be buying my prescriptions there from now on.

Highlights from a very enlightening podcast.
- established a drug manufacturer and PBM
- 15% markup for manufactured or purchased from other manufacturer
- $3 fill fee
- $5 delivery fee

Audio and transcript: https://app.podscribe.ai/episode/83036551

[tenant13]

I looked prices for my heart meds (Metoprolol, Atorvastatin, Losartan) and they were way cheaper than what Genius Rx offers. Losartan is even less at my local ACME but only by $1.50

It seems like it's a viable alternative. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...-stu-rcna33949

[grayv]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tenant13 I looked prices for my heart meds (Metoprolol, Atorvastatin, Losartan) and they were way cheaper than what Genius Rx offers. Losartan is even less at my local ACME but only by $1.50

don't overlook walmart's $4 prescriptions

[JBTX]

https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploa...ain-report.pdf

This article is approaching 20 years old, but it does a good job of explaining the insanity of drug pricing. I think what it says still holds true to a large degree. Ultimately they keep adding layers and layers to try to control costs but the more layers you add the more expensive it gets.

You have manufacturers, distributors, pharmacy benefit managers, pharmacies and insurance companies then health care providers. To the extent you could go directly from manufacturers and purchase generics that are very cheap to manufacture perhaps in selective cases you can cut out costs. The question is how much leverage the big guys have such that they can squeeze out new entrants into the system.

[oscar1]

This is very informative. At first glance, Atorvastatin (Lipitor generic) is $5.07 for 20mg, 90 tabs (get a pill splitter and you have a 6 month supply at 10mg). Only issue is Costco has this same prescription for FREE VIA a promo with Caremark. But still, WAY cheaper than the $350+ I used to spend on Lipitor when I was working and on a group plan. A step in the right direction for sure.