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Walgreens Cuts Ties With Blood-Test Startup Theranos (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the house-of-cards dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Walgreens has announced that it's terminating its partnership with blood-testing startup Theranos. All 40 of the "Theranos Wellness Centers" in Walgreen's Arizona drugstores will be shut down immediately, closing what has been a primary link between Theranos and would-be consumers, and further wounding the troubled startup's revenue. "In light of the voiding of a number of test results, and as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has rejected Theranos' plan of correction and considers sanctions, we have carefully considered our relationship with Theranos and believe it is in our customers' best interests to terminate our partnership," said Walgreens senior vice president Brad Fluegel in a press statement.

3 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The fraud called Theranos is almost dead by Gilgaron · · Score: 4, Informative

    You don't get audited immediately... if the submission looked good then it'd probably go through and most medical products take long enough to ramp up that the audit will still take place before a large rollout.

  2. Re:The fraud called Theranos is almost dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Theranos' results are wildly inaccurate. They also refused to let the FDA or anyone else see the results of their own tests.

  3. Re:The fraud called Theranos is almost dead by NotAPK · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm no expert, but my understanding is that the device fails to work on two levels.

    1) The device samples a tiny drop of blood from the periphery of the body. Regardless of the sensitivity of the analyzing device, any blood sample taken in this way (big or small) will not represent the composition of the blood in the body. It may work for some factors (everyone has seen a diabetic test their finger, but even that test is only "close enough" for them to self medicate with it) but not for all, including some significant ones. Theranos claimed they could "correct" for this. It was an extraordinary claim that required extraordinary evidence that it would work. No such evidence has been presented.

    2) The device works with a tiny drop of blood. Performing the analysis with such a small sample is problematic. Sure, it will work for some factors, since we have extremely sensitive tests for them, or they are abundant in the sample and easily detected. However, there are other factors that are difficult to detect, even with the largest and most sophisticated machines on the planet sampling an entire vial of blood. It was an extraordinary claim that their testing machine could sample a tiny drop of blood and perform reliable tests. No extraordinary evidence for this claim has ever been presented.

    So that's my summary, feel free to read online for a while if you want to find some citations, but it's all been reported pretty well here on Slashdot and in the online media.