THERANOS SCANDAL

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Slide no 1:

In 2014, the blood testing company Theranos was at the pinnacle of its success around the globe.

The concept behind their invention was that it would be ground-breaking. With the technology

that is available today, each diagnostic test must be run on its vial of blood; however, Theranos

claimed that they could complete several tests (supposedly over 240) with just only one pinprick

of blood. These tests include everything from cholesterol levels to intricate genetic analyses. The

technology that was developed by Theranos appeared to be on the verge of bringing about a

revolution in healthcare all across the world because it was automated, rapid, and inexpensive.

Slide no 2:

When Theranos was at its pinnacle, its founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, who was only 30

years old at the time, was in charge of the company. She famously dropped out of Stanford

University for the purpose of launching the business because she was not satisfied with simply

spending the money she had saved up for her education. Following the completion of a capital

raise that totalled over 700 million dollars from investors like Larry Ellison and Tim Draper,

Holmes's startup was lauded as the female equivalent of Steve Jobs and was valued at over 9

billion dollars.

Slide no 3:

A Wall Street Journal reporter and Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner John Carreyrou first reported

the story in 2015. This was in 2015 when he first did it. After hearing arguments against

Theranos technology, John became curious. John's curiosity was sparked even further when he

realized that Holmes had created groundbreaking medical technologies after attending only

chemical engineering studies only for two semesters at Stanford.

Despite the threats and intimidation for legal action, former workers Tyler Schultz and Erika

Cheung, who has former board members of the Theranos board, i.e., their grandfather George

Schultz, began sharing their experiences with the firm, its technology, and its procedures with

John. Importantly, they found that patients were receiving fundamentally wrong data, based on

which crucial medical decisions were being made. They lied to the board of directors, fostered an

atmosphere of fear and secrecy, and developed software that consistently failed quality control

tests. It seems like the whole enterprise was built on deliberate lies from the ground up. John's

article in The Wall Street Journal was largely made feasible by information provided by

Theranos whistleblowers, who disclosed that the company wasn't utilizing its technology to

execute the majority of its tests due to its inefficiency concerning the said equipment. After

conducting their investigation, the FDA confirmed John's account.