Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs tackles expensive rare disease treatments

Billionaire Mark Cuban has spent the last five years trying to make generic drugs like chemotherapy and antifungal ointment cheaper for Americans. But earlier this year, a very different type of medicine began arriving at his Dallas factory. 

One shipment contained DNA-like molecules crafted by California chemists to patch the rare genetic mutation destroying a single patient’s neurons. Another carried DNA-like molecules developed with Dutch researchers to stop a rare disease that causes adults to progressively lose control of their muscles.

They are the first test of Cuban’s newest vision for his company Cost Plus Drugs: shake up the business of custom-made rare disease medicines. “It was an obvious chance for us to help those in that unfortunate situation,” he wrote in an email.