Mark Cuban’s prescription drug company, known for “cutting out the middle man,” is in conversations with hospitals around the nation to identify the most common drug shortages.
The goal is to fill the gap by targeting production at its new manufacturing facility in Dallas toward cranking out the most needed prescription medicines.
“I’ve been having conversations with hospitals all over the country about what we’re going to be doing,” said Alex Oshmyansky, founder and CEO of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs Co. “We’re very much focused on making drugs for pharmaceutical shortages.”
The Deep Ellum “fill-finish” facility — the last manufacturing step in drug making — is expected to be completed early next year, pending U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. Construction began over a year ago on the $11 million, 22,000-square-foot building on Taylor Street.
Oshmyansky said the firm’s starting point was the FDA’s shortage list, which details 185 drugs in short supply.
Many of the drugs on the list are crucial to keeping people alive, Oshmyansky said. He points to oxytocin, which stimulates uterine contractions in labor and childbirth and contractions of breast tissue to aid in lactation after childbirth. It also stops postpartum hemorrhages, he said.
Lidocaine is another drug on the FDA’s shortage list. It’s not only a local anesthesia for surgical procedures, but it also helps prevent cardiac arrhythmia, Oshmyansky said.
“In terms of deciding which products to make, it’s going to have to be very close and collaborative with the individual customers that we have in the health system,” Oshmyansky said. “We will have a limited capacity and we want to make the best use of that capacity to impact public health.”
Cuban, the firm’s billionaire backer, recently told a crowd at a venture forum in Dallas that the company bearing his name “introduced transparency” to how consumers buy drugs.
“There are so many different ways to start attacking health care,” Cuban said.
A Harvard University report published in June said Medicare could have saved $3.6 billion in a single year if it had bought generic drugs from Cuban’s online pharmacy.
The company wants to make an impact, Oshmyansky said, and he’s setting up advisory boards to continue the conversation.
One of the things he’s excited about is the facility’s cytotoxic suite — a dedicated space to make chemotherapy products, specifically for pediatric uses.
“Imagine how devastating that would be if your child has cancer and they can’t get the medicine,” Oshmyansky said. “Those problems are certainly not a panacea solution, but hopefully we’ll be able to address a lot of that at our facility.”
The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. made a splash when it opened for business this year with a goal of disrupting big pharma with low-cost prescription drugs. The firm is the only company that Cuban has ever put his name on.
