Can Mark Cuban help save the pharmaceutical industry from itself?

Breaking into selling branded, patented drugs at a significant discount, however, would be a much harder lift. For drugs under patent in the United States, Big Pharma has a lot more power to set the price we pay — and they make the most of it. A report released late last year by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform found that Medicare would have saved $25 billion in a five-year period on the price it paid for seven popular drugs if it could have negotiated in a way similar to other federal programs with such authority, such as those managed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The report also found companies take steps to maintain their patents — often successful — to head off competition and maintain their profits.