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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

#3
Walgreens recently halted all Theranos expansions (currently only 41 Walgreens have Theranos centers... there were plans to expand to many more): http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/23/walgreens-halts-theranos-te...

And it recently came to light that Elizabeth Holmes was misleading people when she said her company voluntarily stopped using nanotainers -- it seems she was forced to stop by FDA: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/28/business/theranos-quality-...

Between all of this, FDA coming in for tests, and other strange things, it seems they have a lot of answering to do.

Or, alternatively, them being in stealth mode is the reason for all of these strange happenings and lack of better information out there.

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

#4
Since there's so much interest in unicorn valuations today, and Theranos is a prominent unicorn, anyone wondering about the potential implications of all this news on Theranos' valuation might find it useful to look at Valeant Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-traded company (ticker: VRX).

It is facing a number of issues, a few of which have led some to speculate that it could become pharma's version of Enron[1]. In July, VRX hit a high above $260. Today it's trading at less than $110.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/opinion/is-valeant-pharmac...

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

#5
This company is looking less and less like they're struggling to develop new technology, more and more like a deliberate sham. Given that so much of their support thus far has been due solely to the Cult of Disruption, I can't help but wonder if news like this might make at least a few investors consider a return to good old-fashioned due diligence before placing their bets.

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

#8

This company is looking less and less like they're struggling to develop new technology, more and more like a deliberate sham. Given that so much of their support thus far has been due solely to the Cult of Disruption, I can't help but wonder if news like this might make at least a few investors consider a return to good old-fashioned due diligence before placing their bets.

What's interesting is that venture capitalists are slamming media outlets for reporting on the issue.

Here's a rather silly rebuttal to a recent Theranos piece on The Information from Dave Morin: https://twitter.com/williamalden/status/658705178523258880

"Isn't it time as Millenials that we try to use the Internet to unearth deeper facts and see through these traditional smear campaigns?"

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

#9

Since there's so much interest in unicorn valuations today, and Theranos is a prominent unicorn, anyone wondering about the potential implications of all this news on Theranos' valuation might find it useful to look at Valeant Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-traded company (ticker: VRX). It is facing a number of issues, a few of which have led some to speculate that it could become pharma's version of Enron[1]. In July,…

VRX really seems like it's much more smoke than actual fire; at least on recent specialty pharmacy news. It's definitely a complicated and shady-looking structure but it seems like they have shielded themselves from any fallout from fraud. That's not to say the stock won't take a hit in the meantime but Enron comparisons are really overblown right now. Management definitely screwed up by not clarifying things earlier.

Theranos is in a completely different situation. They could easily lose Wallgreens among others over the current fallout and not get the FDA to go the way they want. Company would take a huge hit and given that their signature technology is not really usable right now, I don't know how much more leeway they would really have after this.

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