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Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 In 2003, a 19 year old Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of Stanford university with the hopes of transforming the blood testing industry and the world. 15 years later, she's regarded as one of the biggest failures in Silicon valley. The new Hulu show dropout shows how this happened. Starring Amanda Seyfried as homes, the critically acclaimed show takes us through the rise and fall of Theno homes is fraudulent healthcare company that vowed to revolutionize blood testing technology Theno claimed that it had created a form of blood tests that could run hundreds of tests on just one drop of therefore eliminating the need for blood to be drawn by needles. And in tubes, additionally, these tests were to be run in Walgreen stores all across America for a fraction of the cost of regular blood tests. If it were true, this would've allowed for the groundbreaking ability to conduct preventative blood testing at low costs, meaning people could regularly test us their blood, even without the presence of any symptoms and catch any pathologies before they progress to a point of no return.
Speaker 2 00:01:08 We see a world in which every person has access to actionable health information. At the time, it matters A world in which no one ever has to say. If only I'd known sooner A world in which no one ever has to say goodbye too soon,
Speaker 1 00:01:34 Fair enough's radical promises made its worth skyrocket to a $10 billion valuation in 2013 and 2014, a Elizabeth Holmes as the very young female founder and face of the company then became the world's youngest. Self-made female billionaire in 2014, this made homes, a feminist icon, a woman that had broken through the tough male dominated tech and medical industries, but the product that not only had high value, but also promised to bring a lot of good to, to the general public.
Speaker 2 00:02:04 When people talk about Glass ceilings, I always say that, um, next to every glass ceiling, there's an iron lady.
Speaker 1 00:02:17 It's unfortunate then that it was all a lie in 2015, the wall street journals, John on carro published the article. That would be the beginning of the end of Theno. Hot startup fairness has struggled with its blood test technology unraveled. The elaborate series of lies at homes and her partner in crime sunny Bawan had spun in order to get the nose backed by an incredibly strong board and $700 million worth of investments. The article quoted whistleblowers from the company who exposed that the revolutionary technology that Theno was using did not work. The company was deleting any research that showed the grave inaccuracies of their tests and would water down their blood samples to run them through old blood testing machines, leading to several false test results. One of the key whistle blowers in this case, a freshly out of college, Erica Chung spoke out against the company, despite their many threats to Sue her.
Speaker 3 00:03:15 We would be sitting in a lab meeting, reviewing data to firm, whether the technology worked or not, and we'd get data sets like this. And someone would say to me, well, let's get rid of the outlier and see how that affects the accuracy rate.
Speaker 1 00:03:31 Once the news of the noses fraud was revealed the situation quickly spiraled out of homes control by June of 26, teen per networth dropped from 4.5 billion to virtually nothing by 2018 Theno had completely dissolved, but despite it all, despite the false medical tests that affected real people's lives, the hundreds of jobs that were lost when the nose went under just months after the office's doors closed for the last time Elizabeth Holmes was found partying with her new boyfriend at the burning man festival as seen by the success of the dropout. The absurdity of it all makes for great television today. Holmes is facing prison time. She was found guilty of at least four charges of fraud in January of 2022, though her sentencing date has not yet been determined. The consequ hunts of her actions and the downfall of Theranos not only led to the misdiagnose of several people who used her tests across the country, but also furthered the misogynistic startup culture, rebuilding barriers that in 2013, everyone thought homes had torn down for business women. If you're interested in learning more about Elizabeth home and Theno, make sure to watch the dropout available on Hulu now for w NWR news, it's just Perry PR signing off.
