Giant Eagle partners with billionaire Mark Cuban to slash some drug prices

Billionaire Mark Cuban’s drug company has partnered with Giant Eagle pharmacies to make certain medications more affordable.

As of Friday, customers across Giant Eagle’s five-state pharmacy network may be able to fill their prescriptions for less money through Cost Plus Drug’s Team Cuban Card.

The company buys drugs directly from manufacturers or makes them itself, cutting out the pharmacy benefit managers widely blamed for putting small pharmacies out of business. It then sells them online directly to consumers or through the card program.

“We are really excited about working with Giant Eagle,” Cuban wrote Tuesday in an email to TribLive. “They have really become an innovation leader that is growing as fast or faster than anyone in the industry.”

Cuban and Giant Eagle CEO Bill Artman will officially announce the partnership Wednesday at the Market District in Robinson, not far from Mt. Lebanon, where the tech investor grew up.

The arrangement comes as Giant Eagle absorbs thousands of former Rite-Aid customers and deepens its investment in its pharmacy business.

“It makes a lot of sense for us right now as we have this really dramatic increase in pharmacy traffic,” said Jannah Drexler, a spokesperson for Giant Eagle.

Pharmacy benefit managers have become the bogeyman of the drug industry. The third-party intermediaries between drug manufacturers and insurance providers reimburse pharmacies for prescriptions customers buy with insurance.

But independent pharmacy owners accuse them of reimbursing far less than the actual cost of medications.

Low reimbursements can cause pharmacies to lose money on each transaction, especially on expensive brand-name medications.

A FAQ on the Cost Plus website explains the benefit of ditching the middleman.

“Our prices are the true cost to get each medication from the manufacturer to you. We cut out the pharmacy middlemen and negotiate directly with manufacturers to get the best possible price,” according to the FAQ. “Then, we show you exactly how much you’ll pay for us to keep our business running and how much it will cost to prepare and ship your prescription.”

Customers can register for a Team Cuban Card at no cost either by visiting their pharmacy or going to teamcubancard.com.

The card enables users to get lower prices than they may have through their insurance or other affordability programs, like GoodRx, but only at affiliated pharmacies.

Cost Plus works with a handful of Western Pennsylvania drugstores, but Giant Eagle represents the company’s first major foray into the region.

Giant Eagle joins Kroger, Albertsons and a host of other supermarket chains that work with Cost Plus.

Cuban, a former “Shark Tank” star and minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, helped start Cost Plus in 2022 in a bid to shake up the pharmacy industry.

Since then, its offerings have grown from about 100 medications to 2,500. Their pricing formula is simple: the cost to acquire the drug, plus a 15% markup, plus whatever fees are charged by the pharmacy.

The Team Cuban Card generally offers the same prices as the Cost Plus online store, but they do sometimes vary, according to the program’s website.