Cost Plus Drugs, the brainchild of Shark Tank entrepreneur Mark Cuban, has begun manufacturing generic drugs at its 22,000-square-foot, $11 million fill-and-finish facility in Dallas.
The company is starting with the production of epinephrine and norepinephrine, which have had supply issues on and off since 2012. The bulk epinephrine will be sold to hospitals for use in treating anaphylaxis and cardiac conditions, et al.
Said Cost Plus founder and CEO Dr Alex Oshmyansky:
Cost Plus Drugs is proudly bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the U.S. with advanced robotic and AI computer vision technology that allows us to pivot from making one drug type to another very rapidly, in principle within four hours, that way whatever product is in shortage we can start making that product.
Only a few companies make a given drug, and they are prone to either being shut down by the FDA for unsafe practices or having their manufacturing lines physically break. The drive to lower costs also pushes drug manufacturing to China.
Said Cuban:
Bypassing [pharmacy benefit managers — PBMs] and source programs allows us to directly sell our products in times of need without being blocked by middlemen. We are pledging to be transparent in our pricing, publishing our true manufacturing cost of operating and adding a flat markup. That way we are profitable and sustainable but never extortionate.
No parent should be told the chemotherapy their child needs is not available. Nobody should not get the lifesaving ICU medications they need or have to postpone their surgery because the common cheap medications are just not available in united in the United States in the year 2024. These shortages are driven by the PBMs and the wholesalers and our dysfunctional model of drug distribution.
Having a new low-cost, on-shore source of epinephrine should help even out supply and lower prices for hospitals.
