{"id":7397,"date":"2016-07-09T13:46:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-09T13:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2016\/07\/09\/theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-barred-from-operating-labs-for-two-years\/"},"modified":"2016-07-09T13:46:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-09T13:46:00","slug":"theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-barred-from-operating-labs-for-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-barred-from-operating-labs-for-two-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Barred From Operating Labs For Two Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-style:italic;font-size:16px\">By  <a class=\"colorbox\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/07\/09\/485355994\/theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-barred-from-operating-labs-for-two-years?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=healthcare\">Merrit Kennedy<\/a><\/span>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/07\/09\/485355994\/theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-barred-from-operating-labs-for-two-years?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=healthcare\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2016\/07\/09\/ap_968958996355-59bac735b381178c39d0c2106e81490fa4318d3c-s1100-c15.jpg\" title=\"Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, speaks at the Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco in November 2015.\" alt=\"Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, speaks at the Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco in November 2015.\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, speaks at the Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco in November 2015. <strong>Jeff Chiu\/AP<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong> <span>Jeff Chiu\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Theranos was poised to revolutionize the blood testing industry by using only a few drops of blood in inexpensive tests. But now, federal regulators say they will bar the company&#8217;s dynamic founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes from owning or operating a lab for at least two years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Last year the government began to scrutinize the company after experts found that the results of the blood tests were inaccurate,&#8221; as NPR&#8217;s Laura Sydell told our Newscast unit.<\/p>\n<p>Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services, a federal regulator, <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theranos.com\/content\/pdf\/cms-findings.pdf\">said in a letter made public Friday<\/a> that it is also revoking certification for the company&#8217;s Newark, California laboratory and cancelling the lab&#8217;s approval to receive Medicare payments. The sanctions will not take full effect until September and the company can appeal.<\/p>\n<p>The company will also be fined $10,000 for every day it is out of compliance with the regulator&#8217;s recommendations on how to run the labs, starting on July 12.<\/p>\n<p>Theranos repeatedly failed to prove it had corrected issues previously identified by the regulator, according to the CMS letter, including a finding of &#8220;immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety.&#8221; <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/07\/09\/business\/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-ban.html\">According to The New York Times<\/a>, &#8220;that apparently referred to erroneous results in a test of blood clotting used for patients who take the blood thinner warfarin.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Erik Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan, told Laura that while the company can appeal, the likelihood for success is miniscule. &#8220;If the technology doesn&#8217;t work, there&#8217;s nothing. There&#8217;s just smoke and mirrors. A lot of hype and nothing,&#8221; he said. As for Holmes: &#8220;She&#8217;s radioactive at this point,&#8221; Gordon says. &#8220;I mean, she can&#8217;t stay at the company.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theranos.com\/news\/posts\/theranos-statement-on-cms-findings\">Theranos said in a statement<\/a> that it accepts &#8220;full responsibility&#8221; and vowed to &#8220;work non-stop to resolve the issues identified.&#8221; It added that Holmes will continue to lead the company and denied that any patients were harmed by their tests.<\/p>\n<p>Holmes dropped out of Stanford at 19 to found the company, which sought to disrupt the tech industry with cheaper, simpler tests. As Laura reported, &#8220;Theranos was valued at 9 billion dollars; it had a contract with Walgreens.&#8221; Holmes herself was viewed as a wunderkind and drew comparisons to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/alltechconsidered\/2016\/05\/02\/475972922\/biotechs-theranos-offers-a-cautionary-tale-for-silicon-valley\">Laura said<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div>\n<p>&#8220;Holmes had a beautiful vision, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in investment, and <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theranos.com\/leadership\">a board of big names<\/a> like Henry Kissinger and George P. Schulz. The media had a love fest. <em>Time<\/em> magazine called Holmes <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/3822734\/elizabeth-holmes-2015-time-100\/\">one of the 100 most influential people<\/a> in the world. She was profiled in <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/fortune.com\/2014\/06\/12\/theranos-blood-holmes\/\">Fortune<\/a> and<a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2014\/12\/15\/blood-simpler\">The New Yorker<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But as Laura reported, the Theranos story is now viewed as a cautionary tale, &#8220;and questions are being raised about whether applying hardware and software business culture to biotechnology is dangerous.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/\">Let&#8217;s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/fivefilters\/block-ads\/wiki\/There-are-no-acceptable-ads\">(Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source:: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/07\/09\/485355994\/theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-barred-from-operating-labs-for-two-years?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=healthcare\" class=\"colorbox\" title=\"Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Barred From Operating Labs For Two Years\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/07\/09\/485355994\/theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-barred-from-operating-labs-for-two-years?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=healthcare<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ftpimagefix\" style=\"float:left\"><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/07\/09\/485355994\/theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-barred-from-operating-labs-for-two-years?utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=healthcare\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2016\/07\/09\/ap_968958996355-59bac735b381178c39d0c2106e81490fa4318d3c-s1100-c15.jpg\" title=\"Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, speaks at the Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco in November 2015.\" alt=\"Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, speaks at the Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco in November 2015.\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, speaks at the Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco in November 2015. <strong>Jeff Chiu\/AP<\/strong> <strong>hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>toggle caption<\/strong> <span>Jeff Chiu\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Theranos was poised to revolutionize the blood testing industry by using only a few drops of blood in inexpensive tests. But now, federal regulators say they will bar the company&#8217;s dynamic founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes from owning or operating a lab for at least two years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Last year the government began to scrutinize the company after experts found that the results of the blood tests were inaccurate,&#8221; as NPR&#8217;s Laura Sydell told our Newscast unit.<\/p>\n<p>Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services, a federal regulator, <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theranos.com\/content\/pdf\/cms-findings.pdf\">said in a letter made public Friday<\/a> that it is also revoking certification for the company&#8217;s Newark, California laboratory and cancelling the lab&#8217;s approval to receive Medicare payments. The sanctions will not take full effect until September and the company can appeal.<\/p>\n<p>The company will also be fined $10,000 for every day it is out of compliance with the regulator&#8217;s recommendations on how to run the labs, starting on July 12.<\/p>\n<p>Theranos repeatedly failed to prove it had corrected issues previously identified by the regulator, according to the CMS letter, including a finding of &#8220;immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety.&#8221; <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/07\/09\/business\/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-ban.html\">According to The New York Times<\/a>, &#8220;that apparently referred to erroneous results in a test of blood clotting used for patients who take the blood thinner warfarin.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Erik Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan, told Laura that while the company can appeal, the likelihood for success is miniscule. &#8220;If the technology doesn&#8217;t work, there&#8217;s nothing. There&#8217;s just smoke and mirrors. A lot of hype and nothing,&#8221; he said. As for Holmes: &#8220;She&#8217;s radioactive at this point,&#8221; Gordon says. &#8220;I mean, she can&#8217;t stay at the company.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theranos.com\/news\/posts\/theranos-statement-on-cms-findings\">Theranos said in a statement<\/a> that it accepts &#8220;full responsibility&#8221; and vowed to &#8220;work non-stop to resolve the issues identified.&#8221; It added that Holmes will continue to lead the company and denied that any patients were harmed by their tests.<\/p>\n<p>Holmes dropped out of Stanford at 19 to found the company, which sought to disrupt the tech industry with cheaper, simpler tests. As Laura reported, &#8220;Theranos was valued at 9 billion dollars; it had a contract with Walgreens.&#8221; Holmes herself was viewed as a wunderkind and drew comparisons to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/alltechconsidered\/2016\/05\/02\/475972922\/biotechs-theranos-offers-a-cautionary-tale-for-silicon-valley\">Laura said<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div>\n<p>&#8220;Holmes had a beautiful vision, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in investment, and <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theranos.com\/leadership\">a board of big names<\/a> like Henry Kissinger and George P. Schulz. The media had a love fest. <em>Time<\/em> magazine called Holmes <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/3822734\/elizabeth-holmes-2015-time-100\/\">one of the 100 most influential people<\/a> in the world. She was profiled in <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/fortune.com\/2014\/06\/12\/theranos-blood-holmes\/\">Fortune<\/a> and<a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2014\/12\/15\/blood-simpler\">The New Yorker<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But as Laura reported, the Theranos story is now viewed as a cautionary tale, &#8220;and questions are being raised about whether applying hardware and software business culture to biotechnology is dangerous.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/blockads.fivefilters.org\/\">Let&#8217;s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> <a class=\"colorbox\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/fivefilters\/block-ads\/wiki\/There-are-no-acceptable-ads\">(Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}