Six years ago, the press reported on Elizabeth Holmes as successor Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Now, the old shutped major Blood test Theranos is charged with 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. But the collapse of the company and the criticism of its undisputed founder did not lead to more hunting in Silicon Valley. At the same time, it is not known as Washington has made the necessary adjustments ensuring that a company like Theranos no longer sells incorrect tests to the public.
The main purpose of Theranos, printing press which only needed a drop of blood and could test hundreds of blood tests in stores across the country, was always high. But in 2018, the state prosecutor prosecution Holmes is deliberately embezzling funds and using fraudulent patient blood tests to extort money. Holmes’ lawyers asserted that the 37-year-old Stanford man has a lot of faith in his company but has made a mistake “in his good practice of making blood tests faster, cheaper. His legal team is also waiting to say that, while CEO, Holmes is being abused by his former colleagues which was supposed to start next year.
“This is a case of fraud, fraud and embezzlement,” U.S. Attorney General Robert Leach said He said in his opening remarks Wednesday. “It’s a case in Main Street, and it’s a case in Silicon Valley.”
Although there are many challenges for Holmes, who has spent 20 years in prison, Silicon Valley does not seem to be overwhelmed by the trial or concern over its consequences, in part because Theranos, although encouraged by its culture, it wasn’t back and large companies that make money from technology. So far, the legal differences that allow companies like Theranos to offer its tests to patients have not been closed, and in the midst of the epidemic, the FDA is concerned that other anonymous valid tests is used with “little proof” that it works.
Since 2015, grants hidden biotech companies in the US it has nearly tripled, from $ 10.6 billion to $ 27.2 billion, according to the Pitchbook market release. And in almost two years since the Covid-19 epidemic, funding for medical technology has grown exponentially. MRNA therapies starting with BioNTech and Moderna, where CEO Stéphane Bancel was once convicted due to concealment and refinement, they have developed a successful Covid-19 vaccine that only adds to the excitement in the biotech industry.
“First of all, hope is eternal,” Lawton Burns, a professor of health care at Wharton, told Recode. “There is a lot of money in the VC world, and they have to put it somewhere. And some of the traditional places where they put it – in, like Big Tech – things are full, so they have to look for other places to put it. ”
When it comes to finances, Theranos will not be the topic these days, according to the Wall Street Journal. While some entrepreneurs – especially those without health care – may be more cautious about the information, there is no indication that Theranos has he changed a lot how money selects companies for revenue, or how those companies work by sharing research. Theranos, for example, are known to have kept his writings and machinery secret, citing “trade secrets,” which the critics claim are a cover-up and fraudulent science. But a study published in European Journal of Clinical Research from researchers at Stanford found that most medical companies with more than $ 1 billion in assets, by 2017, are not publishing peer-reviewed research by peers.
Walgreens tried for more money $ 140 million entered Theranos, and in 2013, companies announced their entry “long-term contract”Bringing the Theranos test to Walgreens stores. Like any other investor, the company saw in Theranos a good chance and a chance to compete with its competitors. But by bringing the Theranos machine inside in stores that do not monitor the technology worked, Walgreens eventually gave the company credibility. Some would argue that corporate crisis puts patients at risk used Theranos blood tests in their stores. The Walgreens declined to comment if they changed their tactics.
Some see Holmes’ case as day of judgment on Silicon Valley culture and its reckless habits. (Words like “Going too fast and breaking things” and “You must not lie down until you have made it” In short.) Some Silicon Valley leaders, too pushed return against the notion that Theranos represents their ideas at all. Entrepreneur Paul Graham, for example, criticized journalists for his reputation as Theranos “and Silicon Valley.” He said in a tweet that “people like Elizabeth Holmes are less needy there than all other businesses, or politicians.”
Many of these critics claim that the money donated to Theranos and the composition of its committee are evidence that the company has strayed from the traditional Silicon Valley culture. Too often, financial companies spend a lot of time, research, and expertise learning a company before investing, and they want some evidence for the original idea, as a result of research. In particular, medical companies often recruit people with medical knowledge to serve their regulatory agencies.
That is not how Theranos worked. The company Group of 12 persons it was very bright medical professionals and specialists. The commission did, for some reason, include well-known security leaders, including Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Several corporate advertisers, including old ones education secretary Betsy Devos, Rupert Murdoch, and members of the Walton family with Walmart, also had less medical knowledge. All in all, Theranos was encouraged primarily by investing in money from powerful people and family friends, not a lot of money to make money, a few that provided opportunities save money in the company.
“They were rich people, families, people who didn’t spend much time thinking about the business and the problems that happened at the hospital,” he said. Bryan Roberts, A friend at a financial services company in Venrock that specializes in health, told Recode. “In the early business start-up groups, I think it didn’t happen.”
But even though Theranos was not advised to be paid as a Silicon Valley company, the Holmes do want to adopt the “fake until you make it” ideas that are often linked to the professional industry. It is in this way that the prosecutors are said to have committed fraud, and he he had the support of well-known leaders before he fell from grace. Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who invested in the company, he says he was encouraged Holmes, for example, has ignored critics. Theranos, based in Palo Alto, also eagerly accepted a partnership with Silicon Valley, while the Holmes sat down for questioning at technical meetings as well as making a black bag for his everyday uniform on what appears to be an attempt to imitate Steve Jobs.
“For me, he’s still a child of this culture,” said John Carreyrou, a former Wall Street Journal journalist who first revealed problems with Theranos machines, he told the Washington Post recently. “He explored this legend of a brilliant founder who can see around the corner.”
Although Stability of Holmes and SEC and he is a Balwani court judge, interest in monitoring diagnostic techniques and expertise is growing, mainly due to the epidemic. Companies are rushing to meet the epidemic requirements with new Covid-19 tests, some of which have gone on drug shelves within two years of the outbreak. Early health workers rushed to build their Covid-19 test and sell them directly to consumers in the early days of the plague. And while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took some time to approve the tests, especially in-house equipment, the agency told Recode that it has now issued more than 400 licenses for Covid-19 tests. Across the medical economy, the diagnostic and biopharmaceutical sectors are showing significant growth since 2019, according to Silicon Valley Bank, a commercial bank that is often used as a starting point.
“Before the epidemic, there was a great deal of uncertainty about funding for diagnostics because the company’s biggest success depends on whether the refund from the providers or the insurance companies has been successfully achieved,” he said. Heather Bowerman, founder and CEO of DotLab, who is testing blood tests for endometriosis. “Now, there’s a lot of medical interest.”
This is not to say that the FDA is not concerned about the lack of supervision of laboratory-produced tests, which are tests of natural samples produced in a single lab. Once again, a test drive created by the lab which Theranos and other companies have taken advantage of still. Last fall, organization he found that 82 of the 125 applications for emergency use of a license established by the Covid-19 lab had a problem with its design or authentication method. Many of these were eventually fixed, but some were not approved.
“We have been concerned since the 1990s, long before Theranos, that there are too many unlicensed laboratory tests (LDT) used to make sure the test works,” FDA spokesman Lauren-Jei McCarthy told Recode. “Our experience with testing by Covid-19 labs confirms the need for disease adaptation.”
But while the FDA wants to change that, the agency has the power to regulate such tests it is not clear.
We will not get a verdict in Holmes’ case for a while, as the case is expected to end at least 13 weeks. But even if Holmes is found guilty, it is not clear what our motive is to stop the next wrong weapon in patient production, especially as the epidemic continues.