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Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

wsj.com

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Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#71

Post by ploxiln »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #19
FreedomToCreate wrote: post #4

It still baffles me that Walgreens got into this partnership in the first place. A complete failure of due diligence.

Well yes and no. Remember that they have a really well connected board of directors and a lot of people put their reputation out there based on information they believed to be true. The managers at Walgreens don't know how to design, validate, and certify laboratory tests and procedures so they are kind of at the mercy of the folks who tell them they do. And while it would have been within their rights to send an out…

Then Walgreens should fail and come to be replaced by a pharmacy chain which one way or another depends on input from a competent pharmacist (whether they are equivalent of "CTO", or board of pharmacist advisors, or whatever works).

But according to a very relevant ArsTechnica article[0], they thought to do due diligence, failed to do so, and then in a fit of unicorn mania did the deals anyway:

Theranos failed to hand over an Edison to researchers hired by Walgreens to kick the tires and ensure it worked correctly, despite initially agreeing to do so. The young company, initially valued at $9 billion, didn’t even allow Walgreens executives to enter its lab or walk around the company’s headquarters without a chaperone, the WSJ reports.

Theranos did provide an Edison prototype and sample testing kits to a Walgreens executive. But the machine only spit out test results such as “low” and “high” so that Walgreens couldn’t compare the results to standard blood testing equipment. Nevertheless, Walgreens moved forward with a deal, partly out of anxiety that Theranos might partner with a competitor.

[0]: http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/05/walgreens-failed-to-v...

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#72

Post by dbcooper »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #50
tlb wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, out of the top 5 pharma companies, only 3/5 CEOs have science degrees: (Edit: was 1, wasn't counting medical degrees before) #1: Novartis: Economics, MBA #2: Pfizer: BS chemical engineering, chartered accountancy #3: Roche: economics, law #4: Sanofi: MD #5: Merck: veterinary medicine, PhD So a person who didn't know any better might not assume a science degree was necessary.

> #5: Merck: veterinary medicine, PhD I'm really curious what sort of path takes someone from training to be a vet to heading up a global pharmaceuticals company.

Animal models of disease are very important for drug development.

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#73

Post by wmt »

dennyis wrote: post #44

Man I've gotta say that despite all the bad news this really bums me out. I love being able to run down to Walgreens, order my own blood tests, and get the results without a doctor or a big hassle.

Do you care if the results are garbage or not? Because that's why they're booting them out, all Edison results from 2014 and 2015 were voided. http://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-voids-two-years-of-edis...

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#74

Post by mevile »

bane wrote: post #16

Walgreens managers also grew increasingly frustrated in recent weeks with Theranos as they sought information about the extent of test reports it had corrected or voided. This seems to be a common thread in the stories I've read about Theranos, an almost pathological inability to provide basic information upon request. I can only guess that Holmes' notion of open and transparent communication is defined very differen…

All those Glassdoors reviews talking about long hours of work, working late, and for what? What did all those people work those long hours for? For complete failure. Theranos is in shambles, and these people signed up to work and work late at a company that was a fraud. Requiring employees to work late, or to strongly encourage that kind of behavior is a huge red flag for me when looking for work. People wasted hours of their life at this place, away from family and friends and personal time, all for Theranos, a name that's a joke now.

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#75

Post by JumpCrisscross »

pekk wrote: post #63
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Astroturfing Glassfoor should be considered fraud. It's giving information to potential employees while omitting material information (that the company is the oposter) for purposes which financially benefit the company and its backers.

Just like institutionalized discrimination, prohibiting this has no teeth when nobody can prove it's happening.

> prohibiting this has no teeth when nobody can prove it's happening

If you take a job, find the experience to diametrically-opposed to how it was represented on GlassDoor and suspect your hirer of astro-turfing, a lawsuit with discovery would quickly uncover the action.

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#76

Post by [deleted] »

rubyfan wrote: post #21
bane wrote: post #16

Walgreens managers also grew increasingly frustrated in recent weeks with Theranos as they sought information about the extent of test reports it had corrected or voided. This seems to be a common thread in the stories I've read about Theranos, an almost pathological inability to provide basic information upon request. I can only guess that Holmes' notion of open and transparent communication is defined very differen…

It's been my experience that those who talk about transparency and openness are usually the ones most trying to lie, cheat and steal the most.

[deleted]

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#77

Post by dnautics »

honkhonkpants wrote: post #17
wpietri wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that Theranos's leadership belongs in jail. But I think it's worth reflecting a bit on how much our community created and benefits from the tech-genius hype cycle that they exploited. On how much we have supported a mythos that our cutting-edge innovations can't be judged by existing stick-in-the-mud regulators. I'm not saying that those are entirely bad things. But it's worth remembering that Theranos couldn…

I don't think that's "our community". It certainly isn't my community. I believe (and hope) that the delusional libertarian wing of the entrepreneurial class, who believe that regulation has no place in a market, is a fringe element.

Pretty sure most libertarians are ok with regulations when they involve possibly causing harm to someone's body or laying hands on someone's body or property, and fraud. This case hits two of those concerns.

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#78

Post by re_todd »

vincentbarr wrote: post #36
bane wrote: post #16

Walgreens managers also grew increasingly frustrated in recent weeks with Theranos as they sought information about the extent of test reports it had corrected or voided. This seems to be a common thread in the stories I've read about Theranos, an almost pathological inability to provide basic information upon request. I can only guess that Holmes' notion of open and transparent communication is defined very differen…

Another startling Glassdoor review that seems planted by the company: 'Cons Not a con, more of a note - It is a start up environment, which means that it is very fast and dynamic. It calls for a lot of hard work and creativity. Theranos is not for someone who is set in his or her ways, or for someone who is simply looking for a 9-5.'

Agreed. For a second I thought it was an ad for a job.

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#79

Post by mevile »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #37
bane wrote: post #16

Walgreens managers also grew increasingly frustrated in recent weeks with Theranos as they sought information about the extent of test reports it had corrected or voided. This seems to be a common thread in the stories I've read about Theranos, an almost pathological inability to provide basic information upon request. I can only guess that Holmes' notion of open and transparent communication is defined very differen…

Astroturfing Glassfoor should be considered fraud. It's giving information to potential employees while omitting material information (that the company is the oposter) for purposes which financially benefit the company and its backers.

I dunno, it seems pretty transparent it's bullshit. If I read stuff like this it's obviously signaling a toxic work culture full of company koolaid. I never drink the koolaid. I try to do a good job and work hard, but I never get into company culture stupidity. It's not in my nature.

Re: Walgreen Terminates Partnership with Theranos

#80

Post by godzillabrennus »

tuna-piano wrote: post #14
FreedomToCreate wrote: post #4

It still baffles me that Walgreens got into this partnership in the first place. A complete failure of due diligence.

How many of us could name the current or former Walgreens CEO? I've seen a certain mentality in people, including managers in the more "boring" companies in our economy. Silicon Valey companies are glamorous. There's a certain star mentality about it. Silicon Valley is in the news, the founders are rock stars. I think the management of "boring" companies is as star struck as the rest of us are. They shouldn't be- the…

These big companies have good reason to be afraid. They fall from grace faster and faster all the time.

Look at the turnover in the Fortune 500: http://www.wired.com/2012/06/fortune-500-turnover-and-its-me...

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