Mark Cuban, the billionaire businessman and founder of the online discount pharmacy Cost Plus Drugs, is urging the Trump administration to drop the regulatory fees required for generic drug applications as a way to increase domestic production of those medicines.
The US FDA currently charges of fee of $360K for each generic drug application. Cuban told Reuters that if that fee was waived, Cost Plus Drugs would start manufacturing high-cost generic drugs, such as rare disease treatments.
“There’s no reason for us to manufacture a $4 drug that you get at Walmart, but if there’s something that costs $100 or more, and we can manufacture it here and sell it for less, all the better,” he said.
Cost Plus Drugs already operates a compounding facility in Dallas, and Cuban noted that it could manufacture generic drugs within a year if the fees are ended.
