Photo: Ethan Pines, wsj.com, Forbes, Shutterstock. Design: Nick DeSantis, Forbes Staff
Elizabeth Holmes—and her company, Theranos—promised to change the way
people got blood tests, replacing needles with finger pricks. In June,
FORBES’ estimate of her net worth fell from $4.5 billion to $0. On
October 5, Theranos got out of the business of drawing blood entirely.
What happened?
Photo: Fortune. Design: Nick DeSantis, Forbes Staff
June 2014: Holmes appears on the
cover of Fortune
with stunning news: Theranos, which she founded at age 19 in 2003, has
500 employees and is valued by its investors at $9 billion. She says
she’ll change the blood testing business, later telling TedMed, “The
individual is the answer to the challenge of healthcare.”
Photo: Ethan Pines. Design: Nick DeSantis, Forbes Staff
October 2014: That lofty Theranos valuation, confirmed by sources
close to the company, lands Holmes on FORBES’ list of the 400 richest
Americans. Because she owned half of Theranos, she had a net worth of
$4.5 billion, all of it in shares in a privately held company that was
not traded on any stock exchange.
Video: Forbes. Design: Nick DeSantis, Forbes Staff
October 2015: Questions swirled. At the
FORBES Under 30 Summit
in Philadelphia, Holmes shrugs them off. “The commentary in the press
is 100% instigated by the lab industry,” she said. “We’re the only
laboratory company that is really focused on transparency.”
Photos: wsj.com, Twitter (@JohnCarreyrow). Design: Nick DeSantis, Forbes Staff
October 2015: The
Wall Street Journal publishes an
investigation of Theranos
by John Carreyrou alleging that only 15 of the 240 tests Theranos
offers are conducted on the company’s signature Edison machines, and
that its lab test results were sometimes inaccurate.
Image: CNBC. Design: Nick DeSantis, Forbes Staff
October 2015: Holmes’ response: double down. “First they think you’re
crazy, then they fight you, and then, all of a sudden, you change the
world,” she told Jim Cramer on CNBC.
According to Vanity Fair, Theranos’ internal response to employees was more vulgar: a chant of “F*** YOU, CARREYROU!”
Images: cms.gov. Design: Nick DeSantis, Forbes Staff
January 2016: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which
regulates Theranos, sends the company a letter saying that the company’s
blood tests “pose immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety.”
Theranos claims the issues pointed out by CMS are being fixed.
Photos: Forbes, Steve Jennings, Getty Images. Design: Nick DeSantis, Forbes Staff
June 2016: FORBES
lowers its estimate
of Holmes’ net worth to zero. The $9 billion valuation was no longer
credible in the wake of multiple investigations. We estimate that $800
million seems more reasonable. Because Holmes’ investors will get paid
back before she does, her stake would be worth $0.
Photos: Matt Herper, Forbes Staff, AP PHoto/Jeff Chiu. Design: Nick DeSantis, Forbes Staff
August 2016: Holmes presents
Theranos data
at the annual meeting of the American Association for Clinical
Chemistry. But the data pertains to an entirely new machine. “Everything
we’re interested in, they’re not talking about,” said one critic.
Photo: Shutterstock. Design: Nick DeSantis, Forbes Staff
October 2016: Theranos lays off 340 people—43% of its staff—and exits
the business of running a laboratory. Instead, Theranos will try to get
the machines it showed in August approved by the Food and Drug
Administration.
source - http://www.forbes.com
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