At WIRED’s “The Huge Interview” occasion earlier this month, Value 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 stated, to laughs within the crowd. “We’re a public profit company. However how a lot f—ing cash do I want?”
“I am not attempting 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 Value Plus Medication?
Mark Cuban Value Plus Drug Co. is an internet pharmacy co-founded by Cuban and radiologist Alex Oshmyansky to disrupt the pharmaceutical business and decrease drug prices. It launched in January 2022 and affords greater than 2,300 prescription drugs and supply.
How Does Value Plus Medication Worth Its Medicines?
On the corporate web site, Cuban outlines how the worth construction works: Value Plus marks the bottom worth up by 15%, after which provides on the precise price that the pharmacy expenses them to arrange the remedy.
So a drug like Albendazole, for instance, which treats ringworm and prices round $113 elsewhere, in keeping 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 should undergo or worse – as a result of they cannot afford fundamental prescription drugs.”
Associated: How Mark Cuban Pressured the Greatest U.S. Pharmacy to Upend Its Enterprise
What Is a Public Profit Company?
A profit company—often known 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 wish to generate income whereas nonetheless serving a better objective than itself “and a want for the company to assist make the world a greater place,” in keeping with Rick Bell of Harvard Enterprise Providers.
