The Readout Loud 379: How Mark Cuban plans to ‘f— up’ health care
23 snips
Nov 20, 2025 
Mark Cuban, billionaire entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, discusses his mission to revolutionize health care through his venture, Cost Plus Drugs, aimed at lowering prescription costs. He shares insights on TrumpRx, a direct drug purchasing initiative he champions. Cuban critiques the PBM system for its lack of transparency and discusses how direct-to-consumer pricing can enhance accessibility. He also touches on innovative ideas for financing gene therapies and shares his thoughts on sports betting and its implications.
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Biosimilars Can Dramatically Cut Patient Costs
- Mark Cuban frames Cost Plus Drugs' mission as offering every FDA-compatible drug they're legally allowed to sell.
- He highlights a biosimilar Stellara deal that can cut patient costs from >$100,000 to about $1,280 a year.
Pitch Employers With Clear Savings Numbers
- Talk directly to CEOs and show clear per-patient savings to win employer adoption over rebate-driven PBM deals.
- Explain that rebates ultimately make sick patients subsidize others to change employer behavior.
Price Transparency Shifts Negotiation Leverage
- Publicly publishing prices forces reference pricing and pressures PBM-negotiated prices downward.
- Manufacturers see PBMs as problematic because rebates distort who actually pays and access decisions.