Theranos, the Palo Alto-based health technology firm, has struggled with some of its core technology and in some instances has stopped using its own proprietary device, Edison, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
I ve written about Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes, who aims to revolutionize not only blood tests but also consumer health. The private company is under intense scrutiny to justify its $9 billion valuation.
But the Journal found that company s test results may be inconsistent, and that in some cases, the firm has abandoned some of its key technology.
For example, some of the results for potassium readings in the blood were so off that they could only be accurate only if a person wasn t alive, the Journal wrote, quoting one anonymous former employee. Theranos said it has no indication that inaccurate results were returned to patients.
The company offers 240 tests but the Journal says that it is using Edison for just 15 of them.
Theranos officials responded that its tests are accurate and that it has not exaggerated its claims. However, during the Journal s reporting, the company removed from its website a sentence touting that many of our tests require only a few drops of blood. The company said this and another change were done for marketing accuracy.
I spoke to Eric Lakin, a senior associate at DeciBio, a market research firm, who last year went to a Walgreens in Arizona to test out Theranos blood tests. (Theranos has a nationwide partnership with Walgreens.) He wrote about his experience.
Lakin said of the Journal story:
In general, their tests appear to fall in a range of acceptable values, but I would be hesitant to order them in the case of critical clinical decision making. As the article echoes, certain tests, including Potassium and Sodium, tend to vary quite a bit and Theranos knowingly provides a broader range of acceptable values than most established labs (e.g., Quest / LabCorp).
Above: Elizabeth Holmes, CEO of Theranos. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
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