Trials of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes are underway
pharmafile | September 8, 2021 | News story | Medical Communications, Research and Development |Â Â Â
The highly anticipated trials of Elizabeth Holmes, founder and former CEO of the now-defunct Theranos, have commenced. Prosecutors are to lay out fraud charges against Holmes, who was accused of lying to investors and patients about her blood testing startup in 2015.
According to prosecutors, Holmes and former Theranos executive Ramesh Balwani defrauded investors between 2010 and 2015. They deceived patients when they made their tests commercially available, and the company came under fire when The Wall Street Journal reported that the devices were flawed and inaccurate.
Legal experts allege that Holmes will argue that she did not understand the complexity of her company’s blood testing devices, and believed that they would work despite being told by medical professionals that it would be a difficult feat. Attorneys for Holmes have also introduced witnesses on domestic violence and mental health, and will argue that she was manipulated by Balwani, who she was previously in a romantic relationship with.
The success of the blood testing device relied on its ability to perform a large range of tests with a small amount of blood from a finger-prick. However, the indictment alleges that both Holmes and Balwani knew that Theranos’s technology was incapable of producing accurate results for blood tests.
Prior to its downfall, Theranos reached a valuation of $10bn. Investors in Theranos included Rupert Murdoch and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
Once the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire, Holmes is facing 10 counts of wire fraud, as well as two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She has pleaded not guilty, but if convicted, Holmes could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Lina Adams
