Theranos CEO fires back at WSJ: I was shocked

The Wall Street Journal cited one example of an Arizona woman whose Theranos results showed higher-than-normal ranges in six different tests. Her oft-stated mission is to bring affordable blood testing to the masses (many tests cost as little as $15) through a growing network of Theranos outlets in Walgreens stores nationwide.

The Journal relied on sources who were not in a position to know whether the tests were accurate or not, Theranos says.

Entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes, sometimes called the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, formed Palo Alto, Calif.-based Theranos in 2003.

The statement goes on to say that more than 1,000 pages of statements and documents were supplied to the WSJ reporter to refute the allegations, but those were not mentioned in the article.

Though a company lawyer confirmed that the firm isn’t using the device for all tests, it released an aggressive statement countering the piece, calling the article “factually and scientifically erroneous and grounded in baseless assumptions by inexperienced and disgruntled former employees and industry incumbents”. The only way for Holmes to really prove her critics wrong would be to share more details about the company’s tests and how they work, something Theranos has been reluctant to do, citing trade secrets.

Holmes took to social media to dispute the Journal’s claims, tweeting, “Unclear why anonymous anecdotes outweigh scalable statistics” and linking to Theranos’ statement. For others using small amounts of blood, the company apparently uses a dilution method to run the tests on traditional machines, which could potentially increase error, according to UCSF professor Timothy Hamill, who spoke to Carreyrou. Theranos hadn’t publicly disclosed that it used traditional equipment for most of its testing, despite advertisements that many of its tests could be conducted with “just a few drops of blood”, a feature of Edison.

“The Wall Street Journal fully stands by John Carreyrou’s article about Theranos, which was richly sourced and thoroughly researched”, said Colleen Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the newspaper. When you create innovative technology, scrutiny is to be expected. She said she’d submitted paperwork on 130 tests to the FDA, and that “every test we run can be run on our proprietary devices”. Even the company’s own employees have concerns about Theranos’ blood tests.

A company spokesman did not explain the removal to CNNMoney.

The WSJ also spoke to doctors and nurses, who said Theranos results were sometimes inconsistent with those obtained through other machines.

Despite its assertions of transparency, this isn’t the first time Theranos has been called to task for being secretive about its testing practices. “We are committed to ensuring our members have access to quality health care and service and that our service providers meet regulatory requirements”.

It adds that “stories like this come along when you threaten to change things, seeded by entrenched interests that will do anything to prevent change”.