Mark Cuban’s war on America’s $5 trillion healthcare machine: ‘They can’t react as quickly’

Summary

Billionaire entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban thinks America’s healthcare industry is broken, and he’s not mincing words about it. “No one looks at the financial side of healthcare and says, ‘This is the way it should work,’” Cuban said on this week’s episode of the Equity podcast. “When you go to the doctor and you get a prescription . . . you have no idea what the cost to you is going to be. You don’t know if you can afford it or not.” The former “Shark Tank” host and minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team explained the root of the problem: most drug prices today are set by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), or third parties that manage prescription drug programs. Cuban said drug prices are opaque by design. That’s exactly why he launched Cost Plus Drugs in 2022 — to pull back the curtain on drug pricing, bring down costs to the average consumer, and disrupt the traditional pharmacy industry. “They price to market; we price based off of cost,” he said. The difference is shocking. For example, a generic chemotherapy drug might cost thousands over the counter at a pharmacy, whereas it might cost “$21 from Cost Plus Drugs,” Cuban said. Cuban’s approach is vastly different from how drugs are traditionally priced in the U.S. As its name suggests, Cost Plus Drugs sells meds directly to consumers at a transparent price – the manufacturer’s cost, plus a 15% markup, plus a $5 pharmacy fee, plus shipping. Techcrunch event San Francisco | October 27-29, 2025 “And we’re adding the ability to pick it up in a local pharmacy,” Cuban added. To understand why Cuban’s model is disruptive, it helps to know why drugs cost so much in the first place. The industry has defended its practice of overcharging for medication in the U.S. – which is one of the only high-income countries whose government doesn’t set or negotiate drug prices – by arguing that without the incentive of high profits, companies couldn’t invest the billions of dollars needed to bring new drugs to m...