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Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

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Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#101

Post by dbcooper »

Retric wrote: post #78
downandout wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My take on it is that Elizabeth Holmes set out to make this idea a reality, but has been unable to do so. Sadly, all signs point to her trying to buy time via smoke and mirrors. If she has misled investors in the same way she has misled the media, given that she has raised $400 million, she's looking at decades in federal prison. I see this whole thing ending in tragedy, whether that just means the loss of $400 milli…

Pfizer, on the other hand, told the Financial Times that the company's dealings with Theranos were limited. "We've done only very limited historical exploratory work with Theranos through a few pilot projects, So, the root of this could simply have been poor reporting not deception. I mean you generally don't do multiple pilot projects with vaporware and Pfizer is a huge drug company. PS: 400M is a lot of money, but…

A prototype device probably costs $150k to $200k to build, so $400M should buy an enormous amount of R&D!

Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#104

Post by dbcooper »

dnautics wrote: post #62
Overtonwindow wrote: post #25

I feel like we've seen this before. Young startup, visionary founder, boat loads of money, then after lots of money burned, outright lies, false claims, or at the very least vaporware.

Cambrian Genomics?

Both them and Theranos suffered the suicide of their technical lead ...

Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#105

Post by reality_TV »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #96
reality_TV wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing this story slightly riles me up. My favorite uncle has a brother who is rich behind wildest dreams. He invested in this supposed unicorn. What did or does she do to get rich people to pull out their wallets and possibly dump their money down the drain? I, on the other hand have so much opportunity knocking at my door (demoing my tech to Google, Samsung, about to go onto an inventor reality tv show and tons mor…

You're being modded down for whining, no doubt, but I can see where you're coming from. Every dollar that goes to Theranos (or Enron, or any number of other slickly-packaged plays) is a dollar that doesn't go to someone else's company. Gotta be frustrating to watch that happen over and over when you're personally sure you're a better bet.

im not surprised of being downvoted ... i sound like a whiner no doubt. Whining that if your born rich and affluent or have strong ties to such then getting your startup funded is a ton easier.

Pardon my whining about how getting funding works for a good majority of start-uppers. Like how many Ivy Leaguers has YC funded? Is it a majority or minority amount?

Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#106

Post by reality_TV »

olefoo wrote: post #97
reality_TV wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing this story slightly riles me up. My favorite uncle has a brother who is rich behind wildest dreams. He invested in this supposed unicorn. What did or does she do to get rich people to pull out their wallets and possibly dump their money down the drain? I, on the other hand have so much opportunity knocking at my door (demoing my tech to Google, Samsung, about to go onto an inventor reality tv show and tons mor…

Excuse the bafflement. But wouldn't your uncles brother be your father? Unless you meant to use brother-in-law instead of brother in your post? Also it sounds like you have some good tech, but need a partner who is able and experienced in dealing with investors.

My 8 year history indicates my strong points are ideas, marketing the ideas and building them out some with teams of consultants who are not 500% vested as I.

I'd love to find a true startup partner who has connections and is vested the same as I. One who will and drop everything to help me take advantage of all this opportunity.

My favorite uncle is my father's cousins husband. His brother was the CEO of large well know retail store.

Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#107

Post by [deleted] »

olefoo wrote: post #97
reality_TV wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing this story slightly riles me up. My favorite uncle has a brother who is rich behind wildest dreams. He invested in this supposed unicorn. What did or does she do to get rich people to pull out their wallets and possibly dump their money down the drain? I, on the other hand have so much opportunity knocking at my door (demoing my tech to Google, Samsung, about to go onto an inventor reality tv show and tons mor…

Excuse the bafflement. But wouldn't your uncles brother be your father? Unless you meant to use brother-in-law instead of brother in your post? Also it sounds like you have some good tech, but need a partner who is able and experienced in dealing with investors.

[deleted]

Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#108

Post by Retric »

dbcooper wrote: post #101
Retric wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pfizer, on the other hand, told the Financial Times that the company's dealings with Theranos were limited. "We've done only very limited historical exploratory work with Theranos through a few pilot projects, So, the root of this could simply have been poor reporting not deception. I mean you generally don't do multiple pilot projects with vaporware and Pfizer is a huge drug company. PS: 400M is a lot of money, but…

A prototype device probably costs $150k to $200k to build, so $400M should buy an enormous amount of R&D!

Matthew Herper recently totaled R&D spending from the 12 leading pharmaceutical companies from 1997 to 2011, and found that they had spent $802 billion to gain approval for just 139 drugs: a staggering $5.8 billion per drug.

Granted, we are talking about medical devices, but as soon as the FDA wants clinical trials things get damm expencive and 400M is a drop in the bucket. 200K is about a weeks budget for a well staffed modern lab. Sure, you can get a minor iteration in a week, but nobody is going to send anything down the pipeline without a lot more research than that.

Re: Theranos didn’t work with the huge drug company it supposedly made money from

#110

Post by jonnathanson »

sixQuarks wrote: post #88
tptacek wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prosecution seems fabulously unlikely, given how infrequently founders have gotten in trouble with the law for misleading their investors. Holmes won't be close to the most lurid bad-faith founder claim (if that's how the story indeed ends). This is why we have investor "accreditation".

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Investor fraud isn't the only thing we're talking about here. There are questions about the accuracy of the blood tests themselves.

Indeed. I wouldn't be surprised if prosecutors take a particularly unkind view of the possibility that Holmes has potentially put lives at stake.

That said, her board is a veritable who's who of DC powerbrokers. That will definitely be a factor.

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