For the first time, Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company is selling medicines made by a large drug manufacturer directly to consumers at a greatly reduced price, the latest sign that the billionaire is trying to make good on his vow to disrupt the opaque pharmaceutical supply chain.
Until now, the company has focused on selling generic versions of brand-name medicines. But in a tweet yesterday, the upstart announced that it is selling the Invokana and Invokamet diabetes drugs from Janssen, a unit at Johnson & Johnson. A month’s supply will cost patients $243.90, a significant cut from the lowest price on GoodRx’s website, which is $582.89. The average retail price is $676.14.
Since Cuban first began openly discussing his plans for upending the pharmaceutical supply chain, he has spoken in broad terms about making medicines available to consumers and employers at lower cost. So the deal with Janssen is seen as significant, because the Cuban company has now convinced a brand-name drugmaker to supply medicines.
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