On 4th January, 2022 the Theranos Founder Elizabeth A. Holmes Found Guilty of Investor Fraud on the grounds of conspiracy and wire fraud in connection with a multi-million-dollar scheme to defraud investors in Theranos, Inc. The verdicts follow a 15-week trial. I have been fascinated with Theranos and its enigmatic founder Elizabeth Holmes.
Theranos was a blood testing company based in California. Holmes used a combination of direct communications, marketing materials, statements to the media, financial statements, models, and other information to induce investments. She claimed Theranos had developed an analyzer, variously referred to as, among other things, the Theranos Sample Processing Unit (TSPU), Edison, or minilab. She claimed the analyzer was able to perform a full range of clinical tests using small blood samples drawn from a finger stick. She also represented that the analyzer could produce results that were more accurate and reliable than those yielded by conventional methods—all at a faster speed than previously possible.
The Inventor examines the rise and fall of Theranos, a multibillion-dollar biotech company that was set to transform the healthcare industry. The documentary mainly revolves around Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, and to some extent, the company’s COO Sunny Balwani.
The film chronicles how Holmes and Balwani engaged in fraudulent practices to mislead investors and business partners, and how both of them were more interested in marketing, promotion, and fame than in getting the actual mechanics of their technology working. They also spent most of their time intimidating and threatening former employees who had quit the company because of the deceptive practices followed by Theranos.
Theranos’ meteoric rise and catastrophic fall exemplifies the Silicon Valley attitude towards valuation. This should serve as a reminder to all of us to never get carried away by promises that sound too good to be true.
To tell the truth, I was overwhelmed by the documentary as it shows the imagination of an 18-year-old to transform the healthcare industry. Our mind simply fails to think of the state of the health care industry had she been proven right with her ‘Edison’. This documentary presents a good overview of the Theranos Elizabeth A. Holmes frustration with the ills of the healthcare industry.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
