Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs has a new partnership with a full-service online pharmacy to get low-cost medications to more people across Texas.
Driving the news: This fall, Cost Plus Drugs started working with online-based Alto Pharmacy (no affiliation with the rideshare company Alto) to expand prescription pickup and delivery options in cities like Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin where Alto operates.
Why it matters: More than a million Texans, most of whom are children, lost Medicaid health insurance in recent months as their paperwork fell through the cracks amid a struggling public health system.
Medications are often costly without a decent insurance plan and can become burdensome to low-income families.
How it works: Cost Plus Drugs has over 1,000 generic medications in its online pharmacy. Medications are marked up 15% from the supplier’s price — along with a fee for filling them at a pharmacy or getting them shipped.
The company has partnerships with hundreds of pharmacies nationwide, including Kroger and some independent pharmacies locally, to distribute its drugs.
What’s new: Alto Pharmacy offers a pickup option and courier delivery, letting Cost Plus Drugs users specify their preferred delivery window.
“Our partnership with Cost Plus Drugs allows us to help even more patients as we pursue our mission to fulfill medicine’s true purpose — to improve quality of life — for everyone who needs it,” Alto Pharmacy CEO Alicia Boler Davis said in a statement.
Meanwhile: Cost Plus Drugs opened a 22,600-square-foot facility in Deep Ellum earlier this year to produce “lifesaving” injectable medications and items on the FDA’s drug shortages list at the “lowest possible cost.”
Yes, but: Some Cost Plus Drugs customers have complained of trouble reaching the company’s customer service representatives to address issues.
Source: Axios Dallas
