Theranos:
Theranos, a blood-testing firm with supposedly groundbreaking technology, was on fire in 2014. While current technology required one vial of blood for each diagnostic test, Theranos claimed to be able to run hundreds (allegedly over 240) tests with just a single pinprick of blood, ranging from cholesterol levels to complicated genetic analyses. Theranos appeared to be giving technology that could change medicine and save lives all over the world since it was automated, quick, and inexpensive.
When Theranos was at its peak, Elizabeth Holmes, the company’s founder and CEO, had famously dropped out of Stanford to start the company with her tuition money. She was only 30 years old at the time.
With over $700 million in funding from Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, the business had risen to prominence in Silicon Valley and was valued at over $9 billion, with Holmes being dubbed the “female Steve Jobs” with a stake worth more than half of that.
The only snag? The technology wasn’t up to par.
The storey was initially reported in 2015 by John Carreyrou, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal journalist. After receiving a tip casting doubt on the Theranos technology’s performance, John’s interest was piqued even more by Holmes’s claimed capacity to produce ground-breaking medical technology after only two semesters of chemical engineering studies at Stanford…
Despite threats of legal action and intimidation, former Theranos employees Erika Cheung and Tyler Schultz, whose grandfather George Schultz was on the business’s board, began sharing their experiences with John about the company, its technology, and methods.
They exposed lies to board members, a culture of intimidation and secrecy, technology that failed quality assurance time and time again, and, most importantly, results provided to real patients that were fundamentally inaccurate, based on which life-changing medical decisions were being made. It appears that the company was founded on blatant lies.
John was able to publish his storey in The Wall Street Journal thanks in significant part to information from Theranos whistleblowers, demonstrating that Theranos was not using its own equipment to do the majority of its tests due to its inefficiency. Following FDA investigations, everything contained in John’s report was found to be true.
Theranos’ reaction was awe-inspiring. At first, Holmes and the corporation adamantly rejected the allegations levelled against them. Theranos even threatened to sue John Carreyrou, who had become a perceived adversary of the corporation, with some Theranos employees screaming foul words.
Despite this, Holmes stepped down as CEO in 2018 and was charged with criminal fraud, along with former company president Ramesh Balwani, for allegedly misleading investors and making false promises about the business’s blood-testing technology’s performance.
Following an FBI investigation, the company was forced to go down three months later, leaving thousands of former employees, many of whom John considered to be talented people with integrity, unsure of their future.
Today, Holmes, 37, is still disgraced and faces up to 20 years in jail on criminal fraud charges, which she has pleaded not guilty to. More details about Theranos’ demise are emerging, with prosecutors accusing Holmes of deleting evidence in the company’s closing days, and she is set to accuse her former lover and Theranos COO Ramesh Balwani of abuse.
John digs deeper into the truth of the Theranos disaster and the experience of his investigation in his award-winning book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. Meanwhile, the media continues to be fascinated by Theranos and its founder, with pieces ranging from those questioning the validity of Holmes’s legendary baritone voice to the podcast The Dropout, which is dedicated to the rise and demise of the firm.
The scandal will be adapted for the big screen as well. In 2019, the Oscar-winning Alex Gibney produced and directed The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, a documentary that is being developed into a feature picture. Jennifer Lawrence has been cast as Holmes, and Vanessa Taylor (The Shape of Water) will write the screenplay. Adam McKay (The Big Short) is attached to direct.
Final Words:
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