Then Mark Cuban feels spicy, he will always let you know. The billionaire businessman, basketball owner and Shark tank impresario lit up WIRED's The Big Interview event on Tuesday, with sharp takes on Elon Musk, the pharmaceutical industry, and why he thinks “couch fucking” and Gary Gensler's crypto policies cost Kamala Harris the election.
Speaking to WIRED senior writer Lauren Goode, Cuban praised the trajectory of Cost Plus Drugs, the pharmaceutical company he co-founded in 2022. By offering transparency about costs and pricing policies, Cuban says his company has managed to disrupt the pharmaceutical industry and offer consumers drugs like Droxidopa for about $20 a month, while uninsured patients cost more than $3,000 a month. were quoted.
“We have reduced the price of [one of our 2,500 medications] every weekday for 18 months,” Cuban boasted, saying the company has also had great success publishing its full price list, something that has always been incredibly difficult to obtain from other drug suppliers, both for consumers and researchers.
Now, Cuban says, studies have emerged showing that if Medicare, for example, were to buy nine specific drugs from Cost Plus Drugs instead of their other sources, the government would save billions of dollars, something that not only demonstrates the bloatedness of the health care system , but also the tangible impact that one well-financed company can have.
It's also not that Cuban doesn't make money with Cost Plus Drugs, because he does. He could be making morehe said to Goode, but as he put it, “How much damn money do I need? I'm not trying to land on Mars.'
The crack, believed to be aimed at Elon Musk, was just one of many comments Cuban made about billionaire owner X. First, he talked about his own move from X to Bluesky in recent months, saying he thinks this is an overall “existential moment” for Musk's platform.
Because of Bluesky's troll-blocking abilities and what Cuban calls more engagement-friendly policies, he says he's found it much easier to be a part of that, whether it's Kamala Harris, cryptocurrency or the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, in which he has a minority interest. “If you want to know what Elon is thinking, Twitter is great,” Cuban joked, but added that he thinks Bluesky is more of a true “social network” in comparison.
Mark Cuban and Lauren Goode at the big interviewPhoto: Tristan deBrauwere
