Theranos' reply: http://fortune.com/2015/12/20/letter-to-the-editor-theranos-... It reads like it was written by a small team of lawyers who have had little sleep - not a good sign. :/
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How Theranos Misled Me
11–20 of 89 posts
Re: How Theranos Misled Me
#12Theranos was very clear on this. They have about 200 tests that are successful in a lab setting with only one in the works to be cleared by FDA. Truth is that simple ! The rest is just sleazy journalism that sells tabloids
They weren't "clear" on this. They said were all about their proprietary technology and getting everything from a pinprick when it turns out they weren't doing any of that.
It's like saying I have a great story to tell you but then reading you Moby Dick.
Re: How Theranos Misled Me
#13Hard to not have a lot of doubt in much of what Theranos has claimed to accomplish. Far too much shroud of secrecy to seem legitimate. Every article that comes up about it reeks of something not being quite right.
That which flourishes in the night withers in the light of day I definitely feel that vibe from all the news from Theranos. If their methods were revolutionary, they could show off (and license) their innovations with patents, instead of hiding behind trade secrets.
It definitely appears that they had some initial technology which looked promising but has failed to mature into a viable replacement for commercially available tests.
What I'm wondering is how well Theranos' investors did their due dilligence. It's not completely incredible that a VC might fund a company based on its team and market position even if its core technology isn't a viable product of a long-term business, but it would be somewhat surprising.
Re: How Theranos Misled Me
#14Reporter Roger Parloff certainly isn't winning any investigative reporting awards here. He seems genuinely confused why Theranos, despite having the ability to use its own technology, might also be using existing technology. One explanation might be that Theranos is collecting blood by industry-standard means so that they could also verify accuracy of their newfangled tests using a subset of that sample. All parties…
I read the original article, and what I understood after reading it, was that Theranos had developed a new technology for testing small samples of blood that could be obtained from a finger prick, and could do so inexpensively (sometimes for 1/10th the prior price).
Theranos never made it clear that (A) many (most?) of the tests were not done using Theranos equipment, but by third party diagnostic equipment, and that (B) some (many?) of the tests still required a traditional blood draw.
I understand why Theranos might not want to make that clear (dilutes the value of their story) - it just seems to be the sort of thing that they should have realized would come out eventually, and better to get ahead of it.
Still hoping that Theranos manages to accomplish even 1/2 of what I thought they were doing.
Re: How Theranos Misled Me
#15I thought the title said "How Thanos Misled Me" ... would like that better. :-D
Re: How Theranos Misled Me
#16Reporter Roger Parloff certainly isn't winning any investigative reporting awards here. He seems genuinely confused why Theranos, despite having the ability to use its own technology, might also be using existing technology. One explanation might be that Theranos is collecting blood by industry-standard means so that they could also verify accuracy of their newfangled tests using a subset of that sample. All parties…
I read the original article, and what I understood after reading it, was that Theranos had developed a new technology for testing small samples of blood that could be obtained from a finger prick, and could do so inexpensively (sometimes for 1/10th the prior price). Theranos never made it clear that (A) many (most?) of the tests were not done using Theranos equipment, but by third party diagnostic equipment, and that…
Some of the later back-and-forth stuff states that even for the tests they can do, they were using third party equipment for "scaling" reasons. They're not good at PR and this reporter isn't good at getting answers. What a mess.
Re: How Theranos Misled Me
#17Theranos was very clear on this. They have about 200 tests that are successful in a lab setting with only one in the works to be cleared by FDA. Truth is that simple ! The rest is just sleazy journalism that sells tabloids
They weren't "clear" on this. They said were all about their proprietary technology and getting everything from a pinprick when it turns out they weren't doing any of that. It's like saying I have a great story to tell you but then reading you Moby Dick.
They never once said they were not using existing machines to do these tests, not once, they only spoke about the quantity of the sample needed. Using the same analogy, saying I have a great story to tell you but then reading Moby Dick isn't necessarily cheating, because Moby Dick is a great story :).
Re: How Theranos Misled Me
#18The company seems to be grasping at straws in desperate attempts at damage control now that everyone seems to be catching on that the company is perhaps more hype than substance. Certainly not the first time in business history that a product has failed to live up to initial expectations, but if theres a feeling that people were misled about what was real vs. conceptual then it can get ugly quite quick.
Re: How Theranos Misled Me
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
They weren't "clear" on this. They said were all about their proprietary technology and getting everything from a pinprick when it turns out they weren't doing any of that. It's like saying I have a great story to tell you but then reading you Moby Dick.
They never once said they were not using existing machines to do these tests, not once, they only spoke about the quantity of the sample needed. Using the same analogy, saying I have a great story to tell you but then reading Moby Dick isn't necessarily cheating, because Moby Dick is a great story :).
Right, it's not cheating or lying, just kinda misleading.
Re: How Theranos Misled Me
#20Not to get all tinfoil hat, this sudden press attack on Theranos seems so synchronized.