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Well, there was a reason it always seemed to work, Shaunak said. The image on the computer screen showing the blood flowing through the cartridge and settling into the little wells was real. But you never knew whether you were going to get a result or not. So they’d recorded a result from one of the times it worked. It was that recorded result that was displayed at the end of each demo.
Asia had been ravaged earlier in 2003 by the spread of a previously unknown illness called severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and Elizabeth had spent the summer testing patient specimens obtained with old low-tech methods like syringes and nasal swabs. The experience left her convinced there must be a better way.
The chemistry work was handled by a separate group made up of biochemists. The collaboration between that group and Ed’s group was far from optimal.
Both reported up to Elizabeth but weren’t encouraged to communicate with each other. Elizabeth liked to keep information compartmentalized so that only she had the full picture of the system’s development.
Ellison might be one of the richest people in the world, with a net worth of some $25 billion, but he wasn’t necessarily the ideal role model. In Oracle’s early years, he had famously exaggerated his database software’s capabilities and shipped versions of it crawling with bugs. That’s not something you could do with a medical device.
“Given everything you now know about this company, do you really want to own more of it?”
I do hope you will fully inform the rest of the Board as to what happened here. They deserve to know that by not going along 100% “with the program” they risk retribution from the Company/Elizabeth.
“When you strike at the king, you must kill him.” Todd Surdey and Michael Esquivel had struck at the king, or rather the queen. But she’d survived.
The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t and Beyond Bullsh*t: Straight-Talk at Work,
had cleverly played on this insecurity. As a result, Walgreens suffered from a severe case of FoMO—the fear of missing out.
“It’s a folie à deux,” he said. Tony didn’t know any French, so he left to go look up the expression in the dictionary. The definition he found struck him as apt: “The presence of the same or similar delusional ideas in two persons closely associated with one another.”
Theranos argued that, since its testing process was fully automated inside its device, that was grounds enough to say that it was more accurate than other labs.
it was akin to indentured servitude.
He thought the chemical symbol for potassium was P (it’s K; P is the symbol for phosphorus)—a mistake most high school chemistry students wouldn’t make.
“I mean she really is trying to make the world better, and this is her way of doing it.”
Mattis went out of his way to praise her integrity. “She has probably one of the most mature and well-honed sense of ethics—personal ethics, managerial ethics, business ethics, medical ethics that I’ve ever heard articulated,” the retired general gushed.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
“We do not consent to your publication of our trade secrets.”
“We do not consent to waiving our journalistic privileges,”
Dear Ms. Cheung, This firm represents Theranos, Inc. (“Theranos” or the “Company”). We have reason to believe that you have disclosed certain of the Company’s trade secrets and other confidential information without authorization. We also have reason to believe that you have done so in connection with making false and defamatory statements about the Company for the purpose of harming its business. You are directed to immediately cease and desist from these activities. Unless this matter is resolved in accordance with the terms set forth in this letter by 5:00 p.m. (PDT) on Friday, July 3,
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Super high turnover rate means you’re never bored at work. Also good if you’re an introvert because each shift is short-staffed. Especially if you’re swing or graveyard. You essentially don’t exist to the company.
Why be bothered with lab coats and safety goggles? You don’t need to use PPE at all. Who cares if you
catch something like HIV or Syphilis? This company sure doesn’t! Brown nosing, or having a brown nose, will get you far. How to make money at Theranos: 1. Lie to venture capitalists 2. Lie to doctors, patients, FDA, CDC, government. While also co...
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I have tried to figure out how we could have arrived at a place where The Journal is considering publication of an article that we know to be false, misleading, and unfair, and that threatens to disclose information that Theranos rigorously protects as trade secrets. The root of the problem may be the drama of the reporter’s original thesis, which may fall into the category of “too good to check.” That thesis, as Mr. Carreyrou explained in discussions with us, is that all of the recognition by the academic, scientific, and health-care communities of the breakthrough contributions of Theranos’
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Dear Gary, I’ve been nervous to send or even write this letter. Theranos takes confidentiality and secrecy to an extreme level that has always made me scared to say anything…I’m ashamed in myself for not filing this complaint sooner.
The email was from Erika Cheung and it contained a series of allegations, ranging from scientific misconduct to sloppy lab practices. It also said that Theranos’s proprietary devices were unreliable, that the company cheated on proficiency testing, and that it had misled the state inspector who surveyed its lab in late 2013. Erika closed the email by saying that she’d resigned from the company because she couldn’t live with herself knowing that she could “potentially devastate someones [sic] life by giving them a false and deceiving result.”
Like her idol Steve Jobs, she emitted a reality distortion field that forced people to momentarily suspend disbelief.
“Theranos Had a Chance to Clear Its Name. Instead, It Tried to Pivot.”
One notable exception was Rupert Murdoch. The media mogul sold his stock back to Theranos for one dollar so he could claim a big tax write-off on his other earnings. With a fortune estimated at $12 billion, Murdoch could afford to lose more than $100 million on a bad investment.
One thing is certain: the chances that people would have died from missed diagnoses or wrong medical treatments would have risen exponentially if the company had expanded its blood-testing services to Walgreens’s 8,134 other U.S. stores as it was on the cusp of doing when Pathology Blawg’s Adam Clapper reached out to me.
Hyping your product to get funding while concealing your true progress and hoping that reality will eventually catch up to the hype continues to be tolerated in the tech industry.
