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Elizabeth Holmes
Elizabeth Holmes is the convicted former CEO at Theranos, a now-defunct blood test company.
Holmes was a charming and charismatic leader, poised to change the world of clinical laboratory testing. Her legacy, however, will instead be one of enamoring well-recognized investors with her personality while the technology behind her company ultimately proved lacking.
Her downfall was stunning. In 2014, Holmes was reported to have 18 U.S. patents and 66 non-U.S. patents in her name, and she was listed as a co-inventor on more than 100 patent applications. She was the youngest self-made female billionaire on the 2014 Forbes 400 list, with an estimated net worth of $4.6 billion. Yet by early 2016, Forbes updated her net worth to zero.
She founded Theranos in 2003 at age 19 while she was a chemical engineering major at Stanford University. She subsequently dropped out of Stanford as a sophomore to focus on her startup.
Theranos’ technology was based on her invention and patent for a way to run 30 common clinical laboratory tests on blood obtained via a fingerstick using microfluidics technology – a much faster and cheaper method than traditional lab testing techniques.
By 2014, the company offered 200 tests, was licensed to operate in every state in the U.S., and was valued at nearly $10 billion.
While some observers predicted Holmes’s innovations would dominate the clinical lab test market, an in-depth investigative report by The Wall Street Journal in October 2015 revealed aspects of Theranos that the secretive company has kept from public view. This reporting started the chain of events that would lead to Theranos’s downfall.
As a result of regulator scrutiny, in July 2016, the Medicare program handed down stringent sanctions to Theranos for problems at the company’s lab, including a two-year prohibition on Holmes owning any CLIA-certified laboratory.
Then, in March 2018, the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges that focused on Theranos and Holmes allegedly raising more than $700 million from investors by exaggerating or making false statements about the company’s technology and financial performance.
To settle the SEC’s charges, Holmes agreed to pay a $500,000 fine and surrender almost 19 million shares of Theranos stock and voting control of the company, the SEC said. Also, she was barred from running a public company for 10 years. At the time, Holmes did not admit to nor deny the charges.
Later in 2018, the federal prosecutors charged Holmes on various counts of conspiracy and wire fraud charges. Following the indictments, Holmes stepped down as CEO. Theranos dissolved in September 2018.
Holmes went on trial in fall 2021 after multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and her pregnancy. On January 3, 2022, she was found guilty on three counts of defrauding investors and one count of wire fraud. She is scheduled to be sentenced in September 2022.
September 11, 2023, Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
Here’s another twist in the saga of Theranos, the defunct and discredited lab testing company. Consumers who received inaccurate results from Theranos’ blood tests may get some measure of justice. Walgreens Boot…
Elizabeth Holmes Still Wants ‘To Contribute’ in Healthcare
CLINICL LABORATORY AND ANATOMIC PATHOLOGY PROFESSIONALS have another reason to shake …
Pathologist Sues Hulu Over Depiction in Theranos TV Series
THERE IS AN INTRUGUING NEW TWIST IN THE LONG-RUNNING SAGA of the now-defunct Theranos. Pathologist and former Theranos CLIA lab director Adam Rosendorff, MD, is taking Hulu to court. …
Elizabeth Holmes’ Appeal Questions Competence of CLIA Lab Director
TANTALIZING DETAILS ABOUT FORMER THERANOS CEO ELIZABETH HOLMES’ purchase of a one-way plane ticket to Mexico prior to her conviction grabbed headlines following the filing of a motion to appeal her conviction. However, for clinical labo…
2022’s Top 10 Lab Stories Confirm Challenging Times
CEO SUMMARY: There are valuable insights to be gleaned from The Dark Report’s “Top 10 Lab Industry Stories for 2022.” Several of this year’s story picks involve external forces reshaping healthcare in the United States in profound ways. Other story picks for 2022 illustrate …
Holmes, Balwani Get Lengthy Prison Terms for Theranos Fraud
SENTENCING OF ELIZABETH HOLMES AND RAMESH “SUNNY” BALWANI in federal court caps the strange, yet captivating, saga of Theranos and its flawed blood testing technology. For laboratory professionals, the four years of legal wranglings that surrounded the Theranos fraud case may be remembered …
Ex-Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes Awaits Ruling on New Trial Request
Keeping with the unexpected and odd circumstances surrounding Theranos, a federal judge heard arguments on Oct. 17 about whether convicted company founder Elizabeth Holmes’ should get a new trial. That hearing stemmed from the government’s star witness in Holmes’ 2021 tr…
How Genomic Testing Labs Can Improve Their Relationships with Payers
CEO SUMMARY: For payers and health plans, it may be a matter of trust that initially curtails speedy reimbursement of new and novel genomic test claims. A panel …
Important Court Rulings & Pending New Federal Law
IMPORTANT THINGS ARE HAPPENING WITH COURT DECISIONS AND PROPOSED FEDERAL LEGISLATION that will affect a substantial number of the nation’s clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups. In this issue of The Dark Report, you’ll be alerted to those developments we th…
Balwani Guilty! Sentencing Is Next for Theranos Execs
CEO SUMMARY: The trial of former Theranos President and Chief Operating Officer Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani ended with convictions by a jury on 12 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy. Now all eyes are looking ahead to the sentencing of Balwani and Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and fo…
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Volume XXX, No. 13 – September 11, 2023
Recent court rulings involving the No Surprises Act are putting the government on the defensive about provisions of the law. Also, the continued consolidation of the IVD and national laboratory company markets has brought more influence to those lab companies. In addition, learn how clinical labs can earn money from their diagnostic data by helping private insurers navigate Medicare Advantage’s risk adjustment model.
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