4 ms·

The white label approach is exactly the case I hypothesized (world with only manufacturers and Cuban), so no change there. I believe it's called "white label DT

The white label approach is exactly the case I hypothesized (world with only manufacturers and Cuban), so no change there. I believe it's called "white label DTP direct to patient". This is picking up steam in the industry. It could certainly work and could compete against the status-quo for a time; but as it scales in market share, I anticipate the economic forces I described to eventually occur. If he begins manufacturing the products, I'm not sure how that works. But I believe there's a lot of regulations and issues around manufacturer-to-patient sales. Tides could be turning, my experience in this part of healthcare is a few years old now. In theory, I suppose Cuban could stand up a separate legal entity for manufacturing where he sells to his pharmacy legal entity at some low price to avoid the economic forces I described.

specialist 4y ago
> exactly the case I hypothesized Sorry, I misread. Further, OC explicitly says "Truepill is a white-labelled pharmacy e-commerce platform that MCCPDC". I should have read more closely. I think part of my confusion is from not seeing (or maybe not recognizing) any examples on costplusdrugs.com. Regardless, your points about retail price equilibrium still stands. The choices remain "hollywood accounting" (fraud) and price controls. I continue to hope there's a third option. Not for any moral reason. But rather to avoid the inevitable omgherd libertarian backlash about the authoritarian governmental depriving corporations their god given right to further impoverish sick people. Something like changing the market incentives from fee-for-service to rewarding wellness (eg capitation). But I have yet to imagine how that could work for pharma. Anyhoo. Thanks for humoring my grasping at straws.