Volume XX No. 13 – September 30, 2013
BY ADDING CLINICAL LAB TESTING to its health services offerings in more than 8,100 stores nation-wide, Walgreens, the largest pharmacy chain in the U.S., could disrupt the status quo in the clinical lab industry. Walgreens has partnered with Theranos, a self-styled disruptive innovator in the lab industry that is introducing patented collection devices and test methodologies that require only needlestick quantities of blood. Walgreens says Theranos will offer testing at prices that are less than Medicare prices and will post its prices publicly. However, Theranos has provided no information about the science that supports its testing and the clinical validations it has performed that would meet FDA and state requirements.