Billionaire entrepreneur, co-host of ABC’s Shark Tank, and Dallas Mavericks co-owner Mark Cuban’s newest enterprise is the Mark Cuban Value Plus Drug Firm. It goals to sort out the excessive price and lack of transparency within the pharmaceutical trade by providing low cost generic medication. When Cuban spoke with Eric Boehm for the second season of Cause‘s restricted sequence podcast Why We Cannot Have Good Issues, he shared the origins of Value Plus Medication, the challenges of disruption within the well being care sector, and what it means to be a “good” billionaire.
Q: For those who had been a contestant on Shark Tank, how would you clarify the thought of Value Plus Medication? What is the elevator pitch?
A: Who do you belief throughout the medical provide chain? Your physician. Do you suppose the well being care system is run correctly? Do you belief it in any respect? If I might present you a enterprise the place you would belief it as a result of the whole lot was clear, would you be extra possible to make use of it? Sure. And if I can present you this enterprise, then present that I saved you cash in your drugs, would you be keen to inform others? Sure.
Q: There’s such a scarcity of transparency in drug pricing, the thought to simply put that info on the market looks as if it ought to change the best way different individuals behave. Have you ever seen that but?
A: The neatest factor we did was publish our worth checklist, as a result of the individuals who sometimes set the pricing—the pharmacy profit managers—do the whole lot attainable to remove transparency with their contracts. Effectively, once we revealed the value checklist of what began as 100-plus medication and now could be 2,500 drugs, abruptly there was a benchmark that everyone might examine. Not solely their very own pricing, if they seem to be a self-insured employer, but additionally for Medicare or Medicaid, to check what the federal government is paying.
The impression has been rapid, and led to firms beginning to take a look at what they paid and realizing they had been getting ripped off.
Q: Given the best way the well being care trade works proper now, might you’ve began Value Plus Medication should you weren’t already a billionaire?
A: No probability. It is costly. And let me simply inform you this: if there was a wealth tax the place I needed to withhold a number of money simply in case the inventory market went up and I needed to pay my 2 p.c, I could not do that. It is a good downside to have. I am not complaining. All I am saying is, when it comes to fungible money to put money into issues that matter, I could not have carried out it if there was a tax on unrealized capital good points or web price.
Q: Some individuals say that the very existence of billionaires is a coverage failure. What do you say to that?
A: I am not going to argue with that. Look, I am fortunate. I am the luckiest man on the planet. The actual fact this occurred to me, I attempt to by no means take it without any consideration and attempt to give one thing again. I acknowledge not everyone does that. So is it a coverage failure that billionaires exist? You may make that argument. However you can even argue that not all tremendous rich persons are good individuals, however possibly there’s a web profit to society ultimately. As a result of then it comes all the way down to the place that cash [would] be in any other case. Who spends it higher and who’s extra environment friendly: authorities or us? I could make you an argument from either side. It comes all the way down to management.
Q: What makes a great billionaire or a foul billionaire?
A: For those who had been a great individual whenever you had been poor, you will be a great individual whenever you’re rich. For those who had been an asshole whenever you had been poor, you are going to be an even bigger asshole whenever you’re rich. No matter how a lot cash you’ve, if it is in your nature to assist individuals, you’ll.
This interview has been condensed and edited for fashion and readability.
