Health and Healthcare

Suffering From Another Debacle, Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes Is One of the Least Powerful People In The World

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: August 31, 2016 8:40 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 4:05 am

According to The Wall Street Journal, blood testing company Theranos and its CEO Elizabeth Holmes have suffered a new, major setback. Holmes was recently named one of 24/7 Wall St.’s “50 Least Powerful People in the World.” The new report appears to confirm the reasons for her selection to the list.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Theranos Inc. withdrew its request for emergency clearance of a Zika-virus blood test after federal regulators found that the company didn’t include proper patient safeguards in a study of the new test, said people familiar with the matter.

This is part of the sloppy and secretive pattern that has gotten Holmes banned from the blood testing business for two years.

Her citation for the “50 Least Powerful People in the World”:

At 19 years old, Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of Stanford to start a business, Theranos. The company’s flagship product Edison could draw and test blood through a single finger prick. The company raised more than $750 million in venture capital, and Holmes became the youngest self-made female billionaire in history. After The Wall Street Journal began investigating the accuracy of the blood tests, however, it was soon found that the Edison devices were faulty. Theranos voided all blood testing results from 2014 and 2015, and Holmes’s net worth fell from $4.5 billion — her 50% stake in the company — to nothing.

She is joined on the list by Bill Cosby, Ryan Lochte, David Petraeus, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Brian Williams and many more.

The rest of the list is available here.