Theranos , the biotech company started by a19 - class - old Stanford dropout , has another vault to cut across in its whole " we ’re totally a legit blood - testing company " drive . This time , it turns out that X of thousands of line test were void , make them completely invalid . Whoops !
Update 11/29 : A radical of investor , including Robertson Stephens & Co. and Hilary Taubman - Dye , filed a fresh causa against Theranos , hoping to reverse it into a class legal action suit .
To refresh your memory , Vanity FairandThe Wall Street Journalpublished shocking exposés on just how many ( so-called ) secrets and lie Theranos father Elizabeth Holmes , who kindle hundreds of gazillion of investment money , was veil . The biggest of those was that the society ’s blood - examination technology did n’t workat alllike she said it did , a pretty neat trick for a CEO to pull . Theranos claim to birth full blood diagnostic examination upshot from a undivided pinprick rather than drawing blood intravenously , but the top - mysterious engineering science did n’t live up to its lofty hope . Instead , the run were administered the old - fashioned way , using competitors ' technology .
Krista Kennell/shutterstock
OK , using your competitors ' mental testing – which you ’ve told the public you ’ve improved ! – is pretty bad , but new details in a$140 million rift of declaration lawsuitby former partner Walgreens break that the former billionaire - on - paper had even more to blot out than we realized .
Walgreens filed the lawsuit after pulling out of the deal
Believing Theranos ' technology was legit and that it could , you know , in reality do the blood tests they promised , Walgreens became one of Theranos ' biggest partners . As part of their agreement , Walgreens opened Wellness Centers across the country where people could get their stock tested using Theranos ' technology .
The problem ? The line tests were n’t exactly safe or precise – Walgreens claims Theranos “ failed to meet the most canonical quality standards and legal requirements . " The fellowship allegedly did n’t tell Walgreens that31,000 ( 11.3 % ) of the blood test outcome were bewilder out , and Walgreens had to find out like all the rest of us schmucks : inThe Wall Street Journal . The next Clarence Day , Walgreensended its partnership .
Since the suit was filed on the same twenty-four hour period as America elected Donald Trump as its new chairwoman , the news kind of got lost in the word cps . But the $ 140 million lawsuit is probable to be the final nail in Theranos ' casket – despite Holmes ' claims that Walgreens title are " unwarranted " and are causing equipment casualty to the biotech ship’s company and its investors .
If Walgreens , Theranos ' biggest and most eminent - profile mate , is overturned , then this almost for certain spells the closing of the once - lauded biotech ship’s company . Considering they were capable to elevate more than$686 million from investors , it will be interesting to see how the rest of this Silicon Valley catastrophe play out .
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