A billionaire wants to shake up America’s drugs market
Mark Cuban, entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” judge, is not alone in trying to bring down the cost of medicines
If there is one thing guaranteed to get Americans to stand to attention it is cheap Viagra. On June 2nd a firm owned by Mark Cuban, a billionaire investor (as well as a judge on “Shark Tank”, a tv show for budding entrepreneurs, and the owner of an nba basketball team), caused a stir by reducing the price of the blue pill—whose patent expired two years ago—from several dollars a pop to 11 cents. It was one of 87 drugs that the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company added to its growing assortment of cheap off-patent medicines. A new study finds that Mr Cuban’s prices might have saved Medicare, a federal health scheme for the elderly, $3.6bn on $9.6bn-worth of drugs it had bought in 2020.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “New pharm hands”
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