Cost Plus Drugs
Cost Plus Drugs is an online pharmacy founded in 2022 by Mark Cuban and Dr. Alex Oshmyansky that sells prescription medications at transparent prices: manufacturer cost plus 15% markup, a $5 pharmacy fee, and $5 shipping. Structured as a public benefit corporation, it bypasses traditional pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to offer generic drugs at dramatically lower prices than retail pharmacies. The company operates a manufacturing facility in Dallas, Texas and offers over 1,000 medications.
Score generated by AI agents based on publicly cited evidence and reviewed by the project maintainer. Not independently validated.
Score History
Timeline events are AI-curated from public reporting. Score trajectory is derived from documented events.
Cost Plus Drugs launches with 100 generic drugs and a radically transparent pricing formula: manufacturer cost plus 15% markup, $3 pharmacy fee, $5 shipping. As a public benefit corporation with minimal venture capital, it avoids the profit-extraction incentives typical of pharmacy startups. However, the small team and online-only model create early customer service friction, and the limited 100-drug formulary constrains utility.
Cost Plus Drugs rapidly expands its formulary to 2,200+ medications and secures landmark health plan partnerships with Capital Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California, and Select Health. The addition of Yusimry (Humira biosimilar) at an 85% discount extends reach into biologics. The Team Cuban Card affiliate network launches, reducing the online-only limitation. TIME100 recognition validates the model, but customer service complaints persist as volume outpaces operational capacity.
Cost Plus Drugs begins manufacturing its own pharmaceuticals at the Dallas facility, starting with epinephrine and norepinephrine for hospital ICUs. The company secures its first hospital system partner in Community Health Systems and receives FDA approval to import penicillin to address a critical shortage, slashing prices from $500 to $15. PBM giants Express Scripts and CVS adopt cost-plus pricing models in response, validating the disruption. Academic studies quantify savings while also noting limitations for insured patients.
Cost Plus Drugs cements its position as a systemic disruptor, testifying before the Senate, joining the TrumpRx initiative, adding biosimilars at prices 90%+ below brand, and exploring partnerships with Humana for direct-to-employer programs. Penn Medicine transitions its generic supply to Cost Plus Drugs. The company continues to operate with zero marketing spend, no advertising on its platform, and full pricing transparency. Customer service issues persist but do not represent deliberate value extraction.
Alternatives
Price comparison tool and discount coupon service that works at 75,000+ retail pharmacies nationwide. Easy to use — just search your medication, show the coupon at the pharmacy counter. Research shows GoodRx beats Cost Plus Drugs on price in about 67% of cases, though neither is always cheapest for every drug.
Amazon's mail-order pharmacy with transparent pricing and Prime member discounts. Competitive on expensive generics specifically, with same interface familiarity as Amazon shopping. Works best if you already have Prime; switching is easy — just upload your prescription.
Dimensional Breakdown
Summaries below were written by AI agents based on the cited evidence. They are editorial interpretations, not independent research findings.
Dimension History
Timeline (38 events)
Oshmyansky Founds Osh Affordable Pharmaceuticals as PBC
Radiologist Alex Oshmyansky, frustrated by generic drug price gouging exemplified by Martin Shkreli's 5,455% Daraprim price hike, founds Osh Affordable Pharmaceuticals as a public benefit corporation after Y Combinator advises against the nonprofit model. The company raises approximately $1 million in seed funding from Y Combinator and Luigi Bajetti.
Mark Cuban Backs Company, Renames to Cost Plus Drug Company
After receiving Oshmyansky's cold pitch email, Mark Cuban decides to financially back the entire venture rather than just invest. The company is renamed Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, PBC. Cuban's involvement brings significant media visibility and financial backing without venture capital pressure, preserving the public benefit corporation mission.
Cost Plus Drugs Online Pharmacy Launches with 100 Generic Drugs
Cost Plus Drugs launches its online pharmacy at costplusdrugs.com with approximately 100 generic medications priced using a transparent formula: manufacturer cost plus 15% markup, $3 pharmacy fee, and $5 shipping. The launch targets chronic conditions including diabetes, asthma, and heart disease, offering prices 50-90% below retail pharmacy prices.
Dallas Manufacturing Facility Construction Milestone Celebrated
Cost Plus Drugs celebrates the 'topping out' of its $11 million, 22,000-square-foot pharmaceutical manufacturing facility at 3015 Taylor Street in Dallas' Deep Ellum neighborhood. The facility is designed to produce sterile injectable medications using advanced robotic and AI computer vision technology. Construction had begun in February 2021.
Harvard Study Finds Medicare Could Save $3.6 Billion at Cost Plus Prices
Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital publish in the Annals of Internal Medicine finding that Medicare Part D could have saved approximately $3.6 billion (37% of spending) on 77 generic drugs in 2020 if it had purchased at Cost Plus Drugs prices. The study provides the first rigorous academic validation of the company's pricing model and its potential systemic impact.
Cost Plus Drugs Surpasses $25 Million in First-Year Sales
Within nine months of launching, Cost Plus Drugs acquires over one million customers and surpasses $25 million in sales. The rapid adoption occurs entirely through word-of-mouth and earned media, with zero marketing or advertising spend. Mark Cuban's celebrity profile serves as the primary awareness driver.
Capital Blue Cross Becomes First Health Plan Partner
Capital Blue Cross in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania becomes the first health plan to integrate Cost Plus Drugs into its pharmacy benefits. Starting January 2023, Capital Blue Cross members can process prescription claims through Cost Plus Drugs using their insurance cards via Prime Therapeutics, gaining access to approximately 350 generic drugs at transparent pricing.
Cuban Confirms Minimal Customer Data Collection Policy
Mark Cuban publicly states that Cost Plus Drugs does not collect user data beyond what is legally required for pharmacy operations, differentiating the company from competitors that monetize patient health data. The company relies on Paubox for HIPAA-compliant encrypted email communications to protect patient information.
SmithRx Partnership Integrates Transparent PBM with Cost Plus Drugs
SmithRx, a next-generation transparent pharmacy benefit manager, integrates Cost Plus Drugs into its pharmacy network. Both companies operate on pass-through pricing models with no rebates or spread pricing. The partnership later generates $9.5 million in savings for SmithRx clients in the autoimmune drug category alone within six months.
Coherus Partnership Brings First Biosimilar to Cost Plus Drugs Platform
Cost Plus Drugs partners with Coherus BioSciences to offer Yusimry (adalimumab-aqvh), a biosimilar of Humira, for $569.27 plus fees. This represents an 85% discount from Humira's $6,922 list price and marks Cost Plus Drugs' first biosimilar offering, expanding beyond generic small-molecule drugs into biologic medications for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease.
TIME Names Cost Plus Drugs Among 100 Most Influential Companies
TIME magazine includes Cost Plus Drugs in its TIME100 Most Influential Companies list for 2023, placing it in the Disruptors category alongside companies like OpenAI and Stripe. The recognition highlights the company's impact on pharmaceutical pricing transparency and its rapid growth from zero to over $25 million in revenue in its first year.
Team Cuban Card Launches Affiliate Pharmacy Network
Cost Plus Drugs launches the Team Cuban Card prescription benefit program, enabling patients to access Cost Plus Drugs' transparent pricing at independent brick-and-mortar pharmacies. The affiliate network starts with 36-80 locations across seven states and ultimately expands to over 2,300 independent and grocery chain pharmacy locations across 38 states and Washington, D.C.
Scripta Insights Partnership Adds Price Comparison Transparency
Cost Plus Drugs partners with Scripta Insights to give patients transparent drug pricing and medication options, helping consumers compare costs across pharmacy channels. The collaboration furthers the company's transparency mission by integrating Cost Plus Drugs pricing data into Scripta's patient-facing price comparison tools.
Blue Shield of California Selects Cost Plus Drugs for Pharmacy Network
Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit insurer with 4.8 million members, announces it will replace CVS Caremark and use Cost Plus Drugs and Amazon Pharmacy as preferred pharmacy networks. The move is projected to save $500 million annually on drug costs. The transition begins with Blue Shield's own employees in 2024 before expanding to members in 2025.
Select Health Becomes First Insurer Partner in Intermountain Network
Select Health, a subsidiary of Intermountain Healthcare with over one million members, integrates Cost Plus Drugs into its pharmacy benefits through its PBM Scripius. Members gain access to more than 1,000 prescription products at Cost Plus Drugs' transparent pricing for conditions including high blood pressure, certain cancers, dementia, asthma, and diabetes.
Crohn's & Colitis Foundation Partners for IBD Medication Access
The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation partners with Cost Plus Drugs to improve medication access for IBD patients. Cost Plus Drugs offers Yusimry at $584, compared to $995 at other pharmacies, providing the lowest-cost IBD-specific biosimilar available in the U.S. The partnership helps patients with chronic inflammatory bowel conditions access affordable biologic treatments.
Alto Pharmacy Partnership Adds Courier Delivery for Team Cuban Card
Cost Plus Drugs partners with Alto Pharmacy to enable courier delivery for Team Cuban Card users in markets where Alto operates. For the first time, patients can order medications at Cost Plus Drugs' transparent prices through Alto's app and receive same-day or next-day courier delivery, expanding access beyond mail-order for patients needing faster fulfillment.
Express Scripts Launches ClearNetwork Cost-Plus Pricing Model
Express Scripts announces ClearNetwork, a cost-plus pricing model using the lowest benchmark cost plus a flat 15% fee and pharmacy fee, directly emulating Cost Plus Drugs' transparent pricing approach. This represents a major validation of Cost Plus Drugs' disruption thesis, as one of the 'big three' PBMs adopts the core pricing mechanism it had criticized.
Expion Health Partnership Extends Cost-Plus Model to Specialty Drugs
Cost Plus Drugs partners with Expion Health to integrate its transparent pricing model into Expion's digital platform for specialty drug cost management. Specialty drugs account for over half of U.S. drug spending despite representing a small fraction of prescriptions, making this expansion significant for Cost Plus Drugs' impact on overall healthcare costs.
Formulary Expands to Over 2,200 Medications
Cost Plus Drugs expands its formulary to over 2,200 medications, adding approximately 1,000 new drugs including several in the rheumatology space. This represents a 22x increase from the initial 100-drug launch catalog in January 2022, significantly reducing the formulary gap that limits the service's utility for patients needing medications not in the catalog.
CVS Launches TrueCost and CostVantage Cost-Plus Pricing Models
Twenty-one days after Express Scripts' announcement, CVS launches its own cost-plus pricing branded TrueCost and CostVantage. CVS plans to convert all commercial pharmacy contracts to the cost-plus model by 2025. The rapid succession of the two largest PBMs adopting cost-plus pricing demonstrates Cost Plus Drugs' catalytic effect on the broader pharmacy industry.
CEO Announces Manufacturing Launch at White House Roundtable
At a White House roundtable on lowering healthcare costs attended by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and FTC Chair Lina Khan, Cost Plus Drugs CEO Alex Oshmyansky announces the company will begin manufacturing epinephrine and norepinephrine at its Dallas facility. Cuban and Oshmyansky accuse PBMs of prioritizing profits over patients during the roundtable.
SmithRx and Cost Plus Drugs Report $9.5 Million in Autoimmune Drug Savings
SmithRx announces that its partnership with Cost Plus Drugs generated $9.5 million in savings for clients in the autoimmune drug category within just six months, primarily through Yusimry (Humira biosimilar) pricing. The savings demonstrate the financial impact of transparent biosimilar pricing versus traditional PBM rebate-driven formularies.
Community Health Systems Becomes First Hospital System Partner
Community Health Systems (CHS) becomes the first national hospital system to purchase pharmaceuticals from Cost Plus Drugs. Pennsylvania hospitals begin purchasing epinephrine and norepinephrine for emergency departments and ICUs. The partnership coincides with the opening of the Dallas manufacturing facility and is projected to generate several hundred thousand dollars in annual savings.
Cost Plus Drugs Begins Bulk Epinephrine Production in Dallas
Cost Plus Drugs begins commercial production of epinephrine at its Dallas manufacturing facility, addressing a drug shortage that has persisted intermittently since 2012. The company ships initial batches to 10 hospitals in Texas and Pennsylvania. The facility uses advanced robotic filling lines that can switch between drug types in approximately four hours.
JAMA Study Quantifies Patient-Level Savings Across Insurance Types
A JAMA Health Forum study finds Cost Plus Drugs offers median savings of $4.96 per prescription, with the greatest savings for uninsured patients ($6.08). However, the study also finds that for most insured patients, using health insurance remains cheaper. The research provides the first patient-level analysis of actual savings, tempering earlier system-level estimates while confirming value for the uninsured.
CHS Expands Partnership to All 71 Hospitals with 12 Drug Categories
Community Health Systems expands its partnership with Cost Plus Drugs, making medications available across all of its approximately 71 affiliated hospitals. CHS-affiliated hospitals begin purchasing twelve drugs including antibiotics and anti-nausea medications, expanding beyond the initial emergency department drugs to broader hospital pharmacy needs.
FTC Interim Report Validates PBM Concerns Cost Plus Drugs Raised
The FTC releases its interim report on pharmacy benefit managers, finding the six largest PBMs manage nearly 95% of all prescriptions and documenting self-preferencing, unfair contract terms, and practices limiting generic and biosimilar access. The findings align with the systemic criticisms Cuban and Oshmyansky had been making since 2022, lending regulatory weight to their disruption thesis.
FDA Approves Cost Plus Drugs to Import Penicillin for Shortage Relief
Cost Plus Drugs receives FDA temporary import approval to bring penicillin G benzathine from Portugal's Laboratórios Atral into the U.S. to address a shortage that began in April 2023. The company slashes the price from $500 to less than $15 per unit, immediately importing 1.2 million units. The drug is critical for treating syphilis in pregnant women and newborns.
Cuban Announces Plan to Publish All Customer Contracts
Mark Cuban tells Jon Stewart on The Daily Show that Cost Plus Drugs will begin publishing all of its customer contracts online, stating 'Never before has it been done where, for my companies, we're saying if you want to do business with us, we're going to publish them and put them online for anybody to see all of our pricing.' The move would set a new transparency standard for the pharmaceutical industry.
Penn Medicine Partners to Source Generic Drugs Through Cost Plus
Penn Medicine, a major academic health system filling over 1.5 million prescriptions annually across 16 pharmacy locations, partners with Cost Plus Drugs for its generic drug supply. The initial selection of 100 commonly dispensed medications includes antibiotics, cancer treatments, blood thinners, and asthma medications. Penn Medicine plans to eventually transition all generic medication supply to the Cost Plus Drugs marketplace.
Network Health Integrates Cost Plus Drugs into Medicare Advantage
Network Health becomes one of the first plans to integrate Cost Plus Drugs into its Medicare Advantage pharmacy network, building a fully electronic claims integration with Express Scripts. The plan estimates 65% of covered medications show meaningful savings through the partnership. Network Health subsequently reports 37% growth to 126,000 Medicare Advantage members.
9amHealth Partnership Offers Affordable Obesity Medications to Employers
Cost Plus Drugs partners with 9amHealth to provide affordable GLP-1 and oral obesity medications to self-insured employers. The collaboration leverages Cost Plus Drugs' transparent pricing on first-generation medications alongside 9amHealth's virtual obesity care program including physician consultations, at-home lab testing, and 24/7 clinical support.
Cost Plus Drugs Joins TrumpRx Drug Price Transparency Initiative
At the HLTH 2025 conference, Mark Cuban announces a collaboration between Cost Plus Drugs and the Trump administration's TrumpRx platform. Cost Plus Drugs will provide API access so TrumpRx can pull real-time prescription drug pricing data, enabling consumers to compare prices across pharmacy channels. Cuban states increased volume through TrumpRx will lower acquisition costs and further reduce patient prices.
Mark Cuban Testifies Before Senate Aging Committee on PBM Reform
Mark Cuban testifies before the Senate Special Committee on Aging in a hearing titled 'Modernizing Health Care: How Shoppable Services Improve Outcomes and Lower Costs.' Cuban details how the PBM system drives up drug costs through rebate-driven pricing and calls for systemic reform. Multiple senators highlight PBM monopolies as hurting community pharmacies and patients.
Cost Plus Drugs Adds Starjemza Biosimilar at $1,380/Year
Cost Plus Drugs adds Starjemza (ustekinumab-hmny), a biosimilar of Stelara, to its specialty drug portfolio at $345 per quarter or $1,380 per year. Stelara's list price is approximately $165,000 per year, and competing biosimilars range from $15,000 to $60,000 annually, making Cost Plus Drugs' pricing dramatically lower for patients with psoriasis, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.
Cuban Urges Trump to Waive FDA Fees to Enable Generic Manufacturing
Mark Cuban publicly calls on the Trump administration to waive the approximately $365,000 FDA abbreviated new drug application fee for generic drugs, stating it is 'the only thing holding us back' from manufacturing 100 generic treatments domestically. Cuban argues the fee waiver would spur U.S. generics manufacturing and further reduce drug prices.
Humana Explores Partnership with Cost Plus Drugs for Employer Programs
Mark Cuban and Humana CEO announce discussions to partner on direct-to-employer pharmacy programs that would bypass traditional PBMs. The potential partnership targets the 160+ million Americans who receive health insurance through employers. Cuban notes employers are 'unknowingly profiting from sick workers' drug costs' through the current PBM system.