At WIRED’s “The Large Interview” occasion earlier this month, Price Plus Medication founder and “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban was requested why he would not make extra revenue at his low-price drug firm.
“You are fairly clear that you’re not doing this for altruistic causes — you are working a enterprise,” famous the occasion moderator.
“Properly, I might earn more money,” Cuban mentioned, to laughs within the crowd. “We’re a public profit company. However how a lot f—ing cash do I would like?”
“I am not making an attempt to go to Mars,” he added, with an apparent dig at his billionaire rival Elon Musk.
Associated: Mark Cuban’s Startup Is Sending Its First Batch of Important Meds to Hospitals Dealing with Shortages
What Is Price Plus Medication?
Mark Cuban Price Plus Drug Co. is an internet pharmacy co-founded by Cuban and radiologist Alex Oshmyansky to disrupt the pharmaceutical trade and decrease drug prices. It launched in January 2022 and affords greater than 2,300 prescription medicines and supply.
How Does Price Plus Medication Value Its Drugs?
On the corporate web site, Cuban outlines how the worth construction works: Price Plus marks the bottom worth up by 15%, after which provides on the precise price that the pharmacy expenses them to organize the remedy.
So a drug like Albendazole, for instance, which treats ringworm and prices round $113 elsewhere, in line with Medication.com, is $35, as per the letter. (Cuban wrote that the corporate paid $26.08.)
“Many individuals are spending loopy quantities of cash every month simply to remain wholesome,” Cuban wrote. “No American ought to must endure or worse – as a result of they cannot afford fundamental prescription medicines.”
Associated: How Mark Cuban Pressured the Largest U.S. Pharmacy to Upend Its Enterprise
What Is a Public Profit Company?
A profit company—also referred to as a B Company—has shareholders who personal the corporate, in contrast to a non-profit. So earning money is the purpose, simply not the entire level.
Whereas non-profits (or not-for-profits) serve a public profit and do not make any income, profit firms need to earn money whereas nonetheless serving a larger objective than itself “and a want for the company to assist make the world a greater place,” in line with Rick Bell of Harvard Enterprise Providers.