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Shark investor Mark Cuban has made plenty of waves over the course of his multibillion-dollar career, but most recently he's launched a successful excursion into the generic drug trade: Mark Cuban aims to lower prescription drug prices with online pharmacy People searching for cheaper alternatives to high priced prescription drugs have a new and perhaps unexpected option. It's an online pharmacy founded by Mark Cuban, a billionaire businessman, Shark Tank star and owner of the Dallas Mavericks. His new direct-to-consumer company, Cost Plus Drugs, offers more than 100 generic medications at discounted prices. He joins Geoff Bennett to discuss. WWW.PBS.ORG...

Mark Cuban is offering the general public a way to get the healthcare they need at a truly affordable price ... and all it took was a little less corporate greed. Whodathunkit?!? The Mavs owner/entrepreneur just launched an online pharmacy that sounds too good to be true -- providing more than 100 common generic drugs ... practically at cost. In other words, the medications are significantly cheaper than most anywhere else on the marketplace.

The Sherman family’s private investigation into the shocking deaths of billionaire Apotex founder Barry Sherman and his wife Honey is revealing a very different story than the murder-suicide theory that has led headlines to date. A Star investigation reveals the details. It’s double murder, not murder-suicide. Barry and Honey Sherman were killed in what looks like a professional, contract killing. That’s the conclusion of a variety of experts who have been hired by the family to probe the case. Here’s the new information: There are markings on the Shermans’ wrists, an indication that at some point their hands were tied...

In the 1990’s, the US, Europe, and Japan manufactured 90 percent of the key ingredients from medicine and vitamins. But now China is the largest global supplier. It seems like a reasonable time to take another look at my Full Measure report from August of 2018 about the fact that we have become increasingly dependent on China for our prescription drugs. Watch the video of the story at the link and read the transcript below. http://fullmeasure.news/news/politics/china-syndrome-08-13-2018 There’s been a quiet but dramatic shift in where we get our prescription drugs. We are increasingly dependent on China. And that could be...

They cited the example of the asthma drug albuterol sulfate. The average cost for a bottle of 100 pills was $11 last October, the pair said. The average charge by this April was up to $434. The antibiotic doxycycline hyclate cost $20 last October for a bottle of 500 tablets, the congressmen observed. By April, the price was $1,849. Experts say generics are growing more expensive because of reduced competition among manufacturers and shortages of raw materials. However, that might not explain triple-digit price hikes for some drugs. "Most generics are increasing in price by an average 10% a year,"...

Although Generic Drugs have been considered a cheap alternative to brand drugs, the recent price increase has triggered a Senate investigation. Several low-price drug manufactures were questioned by members of the Congress in October, about the changes that have happened in the last 18 months, in terms of price. The Congress meeting happened as a result of several price complaints from long patients as well as pharmacists and physicians. Some of the low-cost generic drugs’ prices have risen with up to 8,000%. The huge increase was investigated at a Senate hearing, on Thursday. It was reported that three pharmaceutical companies...

Generic drugs now account for well over 80% of all prescriptions. Just 10 years ago, less than half of drugs sold were generics. Much of the growth is because employers make generics extra-affordable through mail order programs (pharmacy benefits managers). Then you also have the grocery stores and big box retailers who do $4 generics. Meanwhile, a lot of breakthrough drugs that were patent protected are no longer so and are now selling as generics. But what you don't know about the pricing of generics can hurt your wallet. The big pharmacy chains discount generics 30% from the brand name...

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that generic drugmakers cannot be sued under state law for adverse reactions to their products, a decision that consumer advocates called a blow to patient safety. In a 5-4 vote, the court ruled for Mutual Pharmaceutical Co, owned by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, overturning a multimillion-dollar jury award to a badly injured patient in New Hampshire who alleged a generic drug she had taken was unsafe based on its chemical design. The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, said the state's law could not run against...

The U.S health care system could save over $1 billion dollars a year if they replace current antiretroviral drugs for HIV infection with generic versions of the medications, a risky move that could seriously affect the efficacy of HIV treatment. The implications of such a change was explored in a study published in the January 15 edition of Annals of Internal Medicine.

The court split along conservative-liberal lines. "It is beyond dispute that the federal statutes and regulations that apply to brand-name drug manufacturers are meaningfully different than those that apply to generic drug manufacturers," said Justice Clarence Thomas. "Indeed it is the special, and different, regulation of generic drugs that allowed the generic drug market to expand, bringing drugs more quickly and cheaply to the public." In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor countered, "These divergent liability rules threaten to reduce consumer demand for generics... ... Thomas acknowledged that from the plaintiffs' perspective in the latest cases, "finding pre-emption here but not in...

China is implicated in key fake-drug rings recently broken up across the Middle East and Latin America. Beijing must do more to clamp down on the entire fake industry, which flourishes within its borders. Chinese manufacturers are faking drugs, endangering patients' lives, and undermining legitimate brands, especially those from India. Indian companies provide vast amounts of generic drugs to mid-income and developing nations. By some estimates, 80 percent of HIV drugs for the developing world come from India, and probably half the antimalarials and antibiotics, too. Since Indian generics dominate many therapeutic categories of these markets, it is not surprising...

The Obama Administration plan to put new generic drugs on the street faster is another example of how Washington healthcare reformers just don’t get it. While it is true that more generic drugs will reduce healthcare costs, it also is true that health risks will increases for many individuals sensitive to even the slightest changes in their medications. The Obama drug plan imposes $10 billion in fees over ten years on the brand-name pharmaceutical industry, to be parceled out among big drug makers to eliminate the so-called donut hole, or gap, in Medicare prescription drug coverage. The idea is to...

LET me start by saying I’m a fan of generic drugs. They save Americans billions of dollars each year and give us access to wonderful drugs at affordable prices. I’ve recommended generics in this column many times and use them myself when possible. But there is a gnawing concern among some doctors and researchers that certain prescription generic drugs may not work as well as their brand-name counterparts. The problem is not pervasive, but it’s something consumers should be aware of — especially now that more insurers insist that patients take generic medications when they are available. Let me also......

Wireless Market, Generic Drugs Reviewed as Justice Department Steps Up Enforcement The Department of Justice has begun looking into whether large U.S. telecommunications companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. are abusing the market power they have amassed in recent years, according to people familiar with the matter. The review, while in its early stages, is an indication of the Obama administration's aggressive stance on antitrust enforcement. The Justice Department's antitrust chief, Christine Varney, has said she wants to reassert the government's role in policing monopolistic and anticompetitive practices by powerful companies.

Fear Factor Accompanies Generic Drugs Made In China By ROBERT COHENWASHINGTON — First, it was inexpensive toys, apparel, footwear and electronics that flooded the U.S. market from China. The next Chinese export to reach American consumers will be lower-cost generic versions of brand-name medicines. Although it will take at least several years before Chinese-made generics are available here in significant numbers, the prospect already is raising safety concerns, given China's history of substandard drugs at home, the recent scandal involving contaminated ingredients in the blood thinner heparin, and other safety problems, from tainted pet food to toothpaste. "We should be...

As overall health care costs continue to rise sharply, prescription drugs have emerged as a surprising exception. Annual inflation in drug costs is at the lowest rate in the three decades since the Labor Department began using its current method of tracking prescription prices. The rate over the last 12 months is 1 percent, according to the government’s latest data, released Wednesday. “The way the index is going, it looks like drug price increases are not going to be very painful this year,” said Daniel H. Ginsburg, a supervisory economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, where he is involved...

(Shanghai) - Government-appointed, low-cost generic drug makers are yet to start producing cheap drugs, partly because the system to ensure that such basic drugs continue to be produced is incomplete, an industry expert told Interfax today. In December last year, the Chinese government announced that it planned to establish a national essential drug system that would ensure that inexpensive and effective generic drugs would not disappear from the market due to low profit margins, and that local medical institutions would continue to have access to them. Through the system, the government would appoint several large drug makers to produce specific...

A quiet coup is taking place in American medicine cabinets. Prescription bottles bearing catchy brand names like Zoloft and Flonase are being pushed aside by tongue-twisting generics like sertraline and fluticasone propionate. While the trend is already pinching the profits of big pharmaceutical companies, it is rare good medical news for American pocketbooks. The nation currently spends $275 billion a year on prescription medicines. But over the next five years, analysts forecast a golden era for generic drugs, as patents begin to expire on brand-name medications with more than $60 billion in combined annual sales. That will open the door...

Wal-Mart boasts that its new $4 generic drug program is disrupting the market, attracting new customers to its stores and starting the nation on a road that will ultimately squeeze billions of dollars from prescription drug spending. “I was never a customer of Wal-Mart,” said Frank Ganci, 74, a retired independent contractor who lives in Ridgefield, N.J. He has no drug insurance, despite being eligible for it under Medicare, because he considers the monthly premiums too high. Mr. Ganci said he recently paid $12 for a month’s supply of three generic drugs at the Wal-Mart in Secaucus — atenolol for...

On Tuesday, Giant Eagle, Inc. announced their plan for a discounted generic prescription drug program in all of its Pennsylvania supermarket pharmacies. The offering, which will reduce the prices of more than 300 generic prescription medications, went into effect immediately. Giant Eagle's announcement came just one day after Target announced that it would expand its $4 generic prescription drug program.