Theranos Executive to Depart Amid Regulatory Probes

[rconti]

"Mr. Balwani, the Journal reported, told them in an email, “I am extremely irritated and frustrated by folks with no legal background taking legal positions and interpretations on these matters.” He wrote, “This must stop.”

He then ordered the employees to only report to the accrediting organizations results from proficiency tests performed on conventional devices, and not the results of those tests obtained from the company’s proprietary Edison machines, according to former employees."

Yikes.

[IIlllIllIIIIlII]

He's frustrated by people with no legal background making legal judgments.

We're frustrated by people with no medical background making fake devices.

[boto3]

Theranos general counsel Heather King told the Journal last year that Mr. Balwani’s instructions were consistent with the company’s “alternative assessment procedures,” which it said it adopted because it believes its unique technology has no peer group and could be thrown off by the preservatives used in proficiency-testing samples.

It's really Theranoax.

[mathattack]

It's a shame that their problems stem first from lying to investors, rather than to regulators and consumers.

[GabrielF00]

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."

-- Richard Feynman

[barhum]

She said the following a while back:

"I think that the minute that you have a backup plan, you've admitted that you're not going to succeed."

I bet she wishes she had a backup plan now...

http://www.inc.com/deborah-petersen/elizabeth-holmes-avoid-b...

[dekhn]

Their backup plan was already executed: they switched from their testing methodology to acting as a service provider for somebody else's testing methodology (http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-maris-explains-why-gv-di... """So, we just had someone from our life-science investment team go into Walgreens and take the test. And it wasn't that difficult for anyone to determine that things may not be what they seem here."

That employee found that when he went to get a test done, Theranos wanted more than just a drop of blood in one of its "nanotainers." He denied a full venous blood draw, and ended up getting called back a week later because they wanted him to give more blood.""")

[reviseddamage]

I can't imagine the stress that Holmes goes through on a constant basis. There is the usual startup founder stress, but this feels like another level.

[pfarnsworth]

Isn't this what one deserves if one tries to peddle something that doesn't work to investors, and then gets hundreds of millions of dollars for it?

[ben_jones]

Person from privileged background drops out of Stanford and raises hundreds of millions of dollars, in part due to family connections, to produce a fundamentally unsound blood testing product. Person then proceeds to sell a broken blood testing product to consumers as a way of digging themselves out of their obligations to shareholders. Person then lies to regulators, instructs employees to lie to regulators, and witnesses one of their chief scientists commit suicide after, according to his wife, the scientist claimed "nothing was working".

I don't care about this person. I care about all the people hurt due to this person's actions. And I am greatly saddened by the high likelihood that this person will, despite the absolute carnage, profit tremendously from the situation.

[zootam]

yea, fraudulent and illegal activities generally up the stress level of anyone

she definitely deserves every bit of it.

[mathattack]

Similar to the stress Bernie Madoff must have felt?

[zeemonkee3]

I feel quite a bit more sorry for the family of Dr. Gibbons.

[epistasis]

Holmes has already cashed out enough to be in a perfectly fine situation. I have little sympathy for her stress level, as it Holmes that has poorly handled the situation while profiting personally.

I worry much more about the stress from regular, honest people that are now associated with Theranos. It would suck to spend many years there, assuming that other parts of the company were doing their job correctly, only to be abandoned so completely by upper management's handling of this situation.

[Alupis]

You feel compassion for someone who knowingly attempted to peddle a medical product just shy of snake oil, only to have it blow up in their face?

Their product was absurdly broken, and the results were essentially a coin flip (I believe the FDA said results were accurate around 50% of the time). They wanted real doctors and patients to base important medical decisions off of this...

[pc-kills-minds]

I am just curious, would you have the same level of concern for Madoff?

[Animats]

So Balwani has been thrown to the wolves.[1] Who's next?

[1] http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=27...

[mathattack]

Thrown to the wolves? Sounds like he was deserving to be sacrificed.

[Ankaios]

Anybody have any clever ideas about how to short Theranos?

[bpicolo]

Start a blood testing company.

[Ftuuky]

Long the competitors?

[fattylite]

LH (NYSE) ? (LabCorp)

[tardo99]

Will there be a perp walk?