Mark Cuban invests in a pharma supply chain business, which undercuts retail pharma and reduces medical care costs for the consumer.
Perhaps this is a shining example of defensive technology investing in a recession.
Business application of technology reduces inflation and benefits the consumer. Think of how Fintech companies can provide more for less, more competitive exchange rates, lower banking costs, and faster transactions. The fusion of technology and business, where companies reduce costs and improve services are in a better position to survive and maybe even thrive in a recession.
As money becomes tight, the Darwinian struggle to survive a recession could force companies to adopt cost-cutting fourth-revolution technologies at break-neck speed. If the CEO of a company cannot figure out how fourth-revolution technologies could disrupt his sector, and reduce overheads, then he is asleep at the wheel.
You can bet the competitor is probably already working on it. Technology companies with utility could be recession-proof.


“Technology companies with utility could be recession-proof”
WEALTH TRAINING COMPANY
The next pharmaceutical Amazon, Mark Cuban invests in a pharma supply chain business
Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company is teaming up with EmsanaRx Plus, which states on its site;
“The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (Cost Plus Drugs), PBC, and EmsanaRx, PBC are partnering to bring you the launch of EmsanaRx Plus, a first-of-its-kind product designed specifically for employers to offer their employees as a standalone product for lower-cost medications that have been contracted directly with drug manufacturers by the Cost Plus Pharmacy.”
So it’s an online pharmacy that provides hundreds of the most in-demand generic medications at significantly marked-down prices.
“Like Cost Plus Drugs, EmsanaRx is working to disrupt the current pharmacy supply chain to eliminate the unnecessary markup and profiteering that is burdening businesses and consumers with high drug costs,” Mark Cuban stated in a press release. “By partnering with a company as committed to transparency as Cost Plus Drugs, and with the technological capabilities to customize to the needs of self-funded employers, we are able to bring lower-cost medicines to a wider swath of the American public.”
Cost Plus Drugs is a direct-to-consumer prescription drug company that aims to eliminate middlemen by buying drugs directly from manufacturers and then selling them “at our cost + a fixed 15% margin.” The partnership with EmsanaRx would enable Cost Plus Drugs, which currently does not accept insurance, to serve the 156 million Americans covered by employer-provided health care.
“It helps us save the health care system overall money by offering a way to save employers millions of dollars on their health care spend,” Dr. Alex Oshmyansky, founder and CEO of Cost Plus Drugs, told Yahoo Finance. “It helps get us closer to eliminating the practice of wildly inflated fake ‘list’ prices of pharmaceuticals which patients are often asked to pay, particularly if they are on a high deductible plan.”

“Like Cost Plus Drugs, EmsanaRx is working to disrupt the current pharmacy supply chain to eliminate the unnecessary markup and profiteering that is burdening businesses and consumers with high drug costs”
MARK CUBAN
How does the current PBM intermediary system differ from Mark Cuban’s investment in a pharma supply chain business model?
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners defines PBMs as “third-party companies that act as intermediaries between insurance providers and pharmaceutical manufacturers” by creating “formularies, negotiate rebates (discounts paid by a drug manufacturer to a PBM) with manufacturers, process claims, create pharmacy networks, review drug utilization, and occasionally manage mail-order specialty pharmacies.”
Oshmyansky explained to Yahoo Finance that PBMs “serve an intermediary, payment processing function, but many take far too much for the services they render. This amount, if often, obfuscates complicated financial engineering.
EmsanaRx CEO Greg Baker stressed that his company differs from other PBMs because its financial goals are aligned with its customers rather than shareholders.
“We are fully transparent and unlike other PBMs, all employer data is available to customers so they can confirm how we are performing and how much money they’re saving” – Greg Baker, EmsanaRx CEO
Mark Cuban invests in a pharma supply chain online model, which cuts out the middleman making healthcare more affordable
It is an interesting case study of how technology is being utilized to cut out the fat in an essential public service.
Mark Cuban has criticized PBMS’s role in the US healthcare system as a significant player in passing on exorbitant drug prices.
“We are fully transparent and unlike other PBMs, all employer data is available to customers so they can confirm how we are performing and how much money they’re saving,” Baker told Yahoo Finance.
Unlike the three biggest PBMs — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx — EmsanaRX does “not own all business channels in the ecosystem or create offshore entities that lead to huge profits while providing no additional value,” Baker added. “We are operating a transparent business — no hidden fees or business practices.”
“Although widely used brand-name drugs often attract competition from multiple generic manufacturers, some decades-old drugs have limited competition” – Annals of Internal Medicine
Costs are also incurred when medications simply aren’t covered: A May 2022 report from Xcenda, a healthcare consulting firm, found that 1,156 medications were excluded from healthcare coverage by at least one of the three biggest PBMs. This was a nearly 1,000% increase since 2014. Among those exclusions, brand medicines “without a generic or biosimilar alternative accounted for nearly half (47%) of total formulary exclusions, leaving patients with fewer treatment options.”
Mark Cuban invests in a pharma supply chain online model and disruption to big pharma
Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company leverages generic drugs to disrupt Big Pharma by lowering costs.
“Although widely used brand-name drugs often attract competition from multiple generic manufacturers, some decades-old drugs have limited competition,” a July 2022 journal article in the Annals of Internal Medicine stated. “One in 5 generic drugs doubled in price between 2014 and 2017, concentrated among drugs with limited competition. Federal and state investigators have charged several generic drug makers in limited markets with anti-competitive behavior, including price fixing; in the federal investigation, five drug makers have admitted fault.”
Supply chain disruptions also pose a major challenge for the generic drug market, as most are manufactured outside the US. And according to the report, manufacturers generally retain 35% of revenue while the rest is “split among wholesalers, pharmacies, pharmacy benefit managers, and insurers.” Time to short generic drug makers?