Pittsburgh native Mark Cuban wants new online pharmacy to be part of legacy
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- He's a hometown kid who made it big. To the world, he's a billionaire tech innovator and TV personality with his own NBA franchise, but to his childhood friends, he's just Mark.
But Mark Cuban is aiming even higher with a new company designed to disrupt Big Pharma and the sale of prescription drugs.
"This is the core group," friend Todd Reidbord, the president of Walnut Capital, said. "Some of us have known him since kindergarten."
They are childhood buddies from the Mt. Lebanon neighborhood known as Birdland, where each street is named after a species of birds.
Cuban's pursuit of riches and success took him to Dallas, Texas, where he made his fortune and now reigns as the courtside owner of the Dallas Mavericks. But Cuban's heart will always be in Pittsburgh.
He insisted that CBS News' Jim Axelrod and a crew from "CBS Sunday Morning" include a trip to his hometown as part of an upcoming profile.
"Pittsburgh's a great town," Cuban said. "My dad did upholstery on cars on West Liberty Avenue for Regency Products, my mom did odd jobs."
KDKA's Andy Sheehan: What is it about growing up in Pittsburgh that made you? That contributed to your success.
Cuban: "I think a lot of it, it's an immigrant city. Some of our grandparents lived through the Depression or our parents were born during the Depression and that molds you and that really defines hard work."
Hard work, sure, but part of Cuban's success can also be attributed to daring to always challenge the conventional way of doing things.
Reidbord calls Cuban a disruptor who somehow went to the University of Pittsburgh without graduating high school.
"Everywhere he went in life, wherever he went, he was always disrupting the status quo," Reidbord said.
Cuban is making waves again.
This time he is turning Big Pharma and the sale of prescription drugs on its head with a new online pharmacy. The aim is to make drugs affordable for the underinsured and those without insurance at all.
Cuban: "The idea that people have to pick between their rent, their food and their medication is just insane and we're trying to change that."
Sheehan: "This is more than a business venture for you?"
Cuban: "Yeah, for sure. It's the only company I've ever put my name on."
The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company is designed to eliminate hidden fees and middlemen called "pharmacy benefit managers." On the direct purchase of a drug, the consumer pays just 15% markup, a $3 pharmacy fee and $5 shipping.
"That's it, and it's the first time anyone's shown their costs and that kind of transparency is really what makes us different and engenders us," Cuban said.
In just 11 months, the pharmacy already has a million and a half users and could soon turn profitable -- bucking the current economic downturn around the country and here in the Pittsburgh region which has struggled coming out the pandemic.
But Cuban remains bullish on his hometown for both its tech innovations of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and eds and meds -- our universities and hospitals.
"We've got a lot to be proud of," he said. "You've got Carnegie Mellon and Pitt to educate the kids, UPMC to hire them, and all these start-ups to hire them and take us into the next 10 decades."
While Cuban continues to look for opportunities here in Pittsburgh, it's the pharmacy that's claiming most of his attention these days. And, despite everything else, he wants his hometown to be part of a lasting legacy.
"When people say that kid is from Pittsburgh. Grew up in Squirrel Hill, South Hills, Birdland, Mt. Lebanon, but he's the guy who started Cost Plus drugs, that's what I want to be remembered for," he said.
No matter how big, how wealthy or influential, Cuban will always remain a dyed-in-the-wool Pittsburgher — ever grateful to his friends, family and the region that made him.
