The startup that billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban co-founded to disrupt the pharmaceutical industry is sending the first drugs it produced to two hospitals that need them.

Bloomberg reported that starting Wednesday, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. is sending its first batch of the allergy medicine, epinephrine, and the blood pressure medicine, norepinephrine, to 10 hospitals in Texas and Pennsylvania.

Both drugs face nationwide shortages, and Cost Plus began making them at its Dallas facility last month, according to Bloomberg. Epinephrine injections are currently in short supply, according to FDA Drug Shortage Database at the time of writing.

^{Mark Cuban. Photo: Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

Cost Plus, which Cuban co-founded with radiologist Alex Oshmyansky, launched in January 2022 and now dispenses more than 2,300 prescription medications through its online pharmacy.

Connected: 'I was young and I should have known': Mark Cuban says this is the first thing he would 'do differently' in life

The startup has an ambitious mission, to sell medicines safely and at the lowest possible price, which it tries to achieve with transparent prices. According to one paper Every drug the company sells is priced the same, Cuban wrote on the startup's website: Cost Plus takes the drug's base price it charges, marks the price by 15%, and then adds the actual cost the pharmacy charges. for the preparation of medicines.

So a drug like Albendazole, for example, which treats the worm and costs about $113 according to Drugs.com, would be $35 for customers through that Cost Plus pricing method, according to the letter. Cuban wrote that the cost the startup had to pay for the drug was $26.08.

“Many people are spending insane amounts of money each month just to stay healthy,” Cuban wrote. “No American should have to suffer—or worse—because they can't afford basic prescription medications.”

Cost Plus too announced on Tuesday that it will partner with Price.com to integrate its drug prices into Price.com's AI comparison tool.

Customers using Cost Plus can choose to pick up prescriptions at 5,000 affiliated pharmacies across the country from last month OR yoke for pickup at 2,000 Kroger grocery stores as of July of last year.

Amazon Pharmacy is another direct-to-consumer online pharmacy platform that recently announced Same-day delivery in New York City and Los Angeles, with plans to expand to more than a dozen cities by the end of 2024.

Connected: 'Don't follow your passion': Mark Cuban shares the 'worst' business advice he's ever received