NCSD Applauds Mark Cuban and Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company for Importing Crucial Syphilis Drug 

Importation of Portuguese penicillin offers new opportunity to address multi-year shortage of lifesaving congenital syphilis treatment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 18, 2024
Contact: Elizabeth Finley, efinley@ncsddc.org, (919) 749-7309 

Washington, DC – On Wednesday, the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company announced that they had secured FDA approval to import Lentocilin, a Portuguese-manufactured version of the form of penicillin known in the U.S as Bicillin L-A that is the only cure for congenital syphilis and the gold-standard treatment for adults with syphilis. The company will sell the drug at $15 per dose, a fraction of the cost of Bicillin L-A, which has been in shortage multiple times over the past 20 years. The current shortage has contributed to the national congenital syphilis crisis.  David C. Harvey, Executive Director of NCSD, issued the following statement: 

“The announcement that Mark Cuban and Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company will import the drug that cures syphilis for just $15 a dose is a major development in the national fight to stop exploding rates of congenital syphilis and syphilis. Pregnant patients and their babies need immediate access to the drug and other patients with syphilis shouldn’t have to take a less effective treatment due to a drug shortage in America.” 

“We applaud Mark Cuban for challenging the notion that we cannot fix drug shortages and that we must survive at the mercy of a single manufacturer that didn’t accurately forecast the supply that was needed and is too vulnerable to supply chain problems in China. If we want to solve our national syphilis crisis and stop the deadly rise in congenital syphilis, we need to address the root causes like these of drug shortages and prohibitively high prices.”  

“We urge Mark Cuban, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, and the FDA to work toward permanent solutions to the shortage of penicillin used to treat syphilis, which has occurred multiple times over the last two decades. If Mr. Cuban, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company and the FDA can work together to creatively solve this immediate problem related to syphilis, they can keep these devastating shortages from ever happening again in America!,” says David C. Harvey, Executive Director of NCSD. 

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