Theranos

Theranos was an American biotechnology company based in Palo Alto, California.

Theranos was founded in 2003 by Elizabeth Holmes. The company raised its first round of seed funding in June 2004 led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson (since renamed to Threshold).¹⁾

In July 2015, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved one of the company's blood tests.²⁾ Then-Vice President Joe Biden visited the company's lab, which had been staged for a photo op.^{3) 4)}

On October 16, 2015, Wall Street Journal writer John Carreyrou published an exposé titled “Hot Startup Theranos Has Struggled With Its Blood-Test Technology”, raising questions about the effectiveness of Theranos' products.⁵⁾

According to company whistleblower Erika Cheung, the machines were unable to provide accurate and consistent results, therefore data was often manipulated.⁶⁾

The company's board of directors included some very high profile names.⁷⁾

Funding for Theranos came from investments from the following people and organizations:⁹⁾

• Draper Fisher Jurvetson (now called Threshold)
• Larry Ellison
• Rupert Murdoch
• Tim Draper
• Walgreens

Theranos promised the ability for people to receive blood tests quickly from a small finger-prick worth of blood. The blood would enter a cartridge, those cartridges would be put in a machine that would send data over the internet to perform on-the-spot testing.

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• Ian Gibbons

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