The Daily Show: Ears Edition TDS Time Machine | Big Pharma
Nov 16, 2025
Mark Cuban, entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, joins to discuss his Cost Plus Drug Company aimed at increasing drug price transparency. He highlights shocking price reductions achieved through a straightforward pricing model, like for imatinib. The conversation dives into the opioid crisis, examining Purdue Pharma's accountability and the unethical marketing practices that fueled addiction. Cuban also critiques the role of pharmacy benefit managers and the need for reform in healthcare pricing to truly benefit patients.
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Subsidies Without Price Relief
- Pharmaceutical companies receive huge public subsidies yet keep prices high and resist full negotiation.
- Trevor Noah argues negotiating only 10 drugs is a symbolic, insufficient concession given taxpayer support.
Profit Over Accountability
- Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family profited massively while fueling the opioid epidemic and dodged full accountability.
- Trevor Noah calls the settlement and minimal admissions of guilt an inadequate response to mass harm.
Whistleblower Claims Industry Influence
- Michael Kosta interviews a whistleblower, Dr. John Verapen, who claims pharma influences regulators and researchers.
- Verapen implies corruption enabled misleading promotion of opioids to doctors.