(TNS) — Standing at a podium on the second floor of the Giant Eagle Market District in Robinson, Mark Cuban jokingly announced that he and the CEO of Giant Eagle would be buying the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In reality, he was there to promote a partnership that he believes will have an even greater effect on Pittsburghers: Giant Eagle is now working with Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Co. to allow its pharmacy customers to access discounted drug prices.

“I think together, we’re going to be able to have a significant impact on the city of Pittsburgh and the entire community,” said Cuban, a billionaire, former “Shark Tank” judge and part-owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.

Cuban co-founded Cost Plus in 2022 along with radiologist Alex Oshmyansky, who sent him a cold email proposing the idea. The company negotiates directly with drug manufacturers and even manufactures some drugs in-house, which can result in significant savings for consumers. The company publishes the price that it pays to acquire a drug and adds an across the board 15% markup to that price, along with a $5 pharmacy labor fee.

It initially operated online only, becoming available in brick-and-mortar locations in 2023, including large supermarket chains around the country such as Kroger. Several independent pharmacies in the Pittsburgh area accept the Team Cuban Card that customers use to access the Cost Plus prices.

Cost Plus isn’t quite breaking even, and probably wouldn’t be a darling on “Shark Tank.” But that’s not the point for Cuban, who described it as his passion project to disrupt the health care industry.

“I’m not looking to build it and sell it,” he said. “I’m not looking to make a ton of money off it. We just want it only just to pretty much break even. It’s just a whole different perspective and a whole different mindset and goal.”

Since its inception, Cost Plus has expanded from offering about 100 generic drugs to more than 2,300 different drugs — primarily generics with some brand-name options. It was that expansion that drew the interest of Giant Eagle.

“The juice has to be worth the squeeze,” said Bill Artman, chief executive officer of Giant Eagle. “And, as Mark added more drugs into the program, this was the right time for us to get in.”

The partnership officially began Aug. 1.

Customers at Giant Eagle can sign up online for Cost Plus or can do so in person in the store. At the news conference, Artman showed off a Team Cuban Card that had been printed at Giant Eagle that morning. Giant Eagle pharmacists can check whether a customer would get a better deal using their health insurance card or by using their Team Cuban Card. To fill their prescription at physical pharmacies, Cost Plus users pay an additional $12 fee to that pharmacy.

The Cost Plus partnership is coming at a time of immense growth for Giant Eagle’s pharmacy division, which already makes up more than 30% of the grocery chain’s sales.

Giant Eagle had almost 30 million prescriptions on file before the Rite Aid bankruptcy and purchased the files for an additional 6 million prescriptions from Rite Aid. While Giant Eagle will not end up servicing all of the former Rite Aid customers, Artman believes they will keep most of them.

The influx of Rite Aid customers has led to high volumes and long lines as Giant Eagle expands its staff and its facilities to accommodate them.

“I can’t emphasize how much I appreciate the patience of our customers, as well as our team members going through this transition,” said Artman, noting that some of the lines result from an initial onboarding of new Rite Aid customers.

Giant Eagle is looking into opening more freestanding pharmacies to “take the pressure off” of stores with especially high volume, he said, and is in the process of making capital investments to expand 25 pharmacies within its grocery stores. It has also hired about 250 former Rite Aid workers, he said, with about 150 of those already working in the stores and 100 still in the training process.

For Cuban, who shopped at Giant Eagle as a kid, coming to Pittsburgh to announce the partnership offered not only a chance to take in a Pirates game on a beautiful Tuesday evening but also to build a legacy in his hometown.

“Giant Eagle is Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh is Giant Eagle — we all grew up with it,” he said. “Having grown up the same way myself, we partner with 16,000 pharmacies — this is the only one I showed up to.”