Mark Cuban’s War on Drug Prices: “How Much the Fuck Do I Need?”

When was Marek Kubański? feels zingy, he will always let you know. Billionaire businessman, basketball owner and Shark Tank the impresario lit up WIRED’s The Substantial Interview event on Tuesday, sharing his fiery opinions on Elon Musk, the pharmaceutical industry and why he thinks Gary Gensler’s “couch f**king” and crypto policies cost Kamala Harris the election.

In an interview with WIRED senior writer Lauren Goode, Cuban praised the growth of the pharmaceutical company Cost Plus Drugs, which he co-founded in 2022. By offering transparency in costs and pricing policies, Cuban says his company has managed to revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry by offering consumers medicines like Droxidopa for about $20 a month compared to the more than $3,000 a month quoted for uninsured patients.

“We have lowered the price [one of our 2,500 medications] every weekday for 18 months,” Cuban boasted, saying that the company also achieved great success in publishing its entire price list, which has always been extremely arduous to obtain from other drug suppliers, both for consumers and researchers.

Cuban says studies have shown that if Medicare had purchased, for example, nine specific drugs from Cost Plus Drugs instead of from other sources, the government would have saved billions of dollars, which not only shows the bloat of the health care system but also the concrete effect that one well-funded drug can have undertaking.

It’s not that Cuban doesn’t make money on Cost Plus drugs, because he does. He could do more” he told Goode, but as he put it, “How much f**k money do I need? I’m not trying to land on Mars.

The snap, likely aimed at Elon Musk, was just one of several remarks the Cuban made about billionaire owner X. First, he talked about his own move from X to Bluesky in recent months, saying he thought it was overall ” “existential moment” for Musk’s platform.

Because of Bluesky’s troll-blocking capabilities and what Cuban calls a more engagement-friendly policy, he says it’s been much easier for him to get involved there, whether it’s Kamala Harris, cryptocurrency, or the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, in in which he has a minority share. “If you want to know what Elon thinks, Twitter is amazing,” Cuban joked, but added that Bluesky is more of a true “social network” in comparison.