August 3, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
PALO ALTO, Calif. – Under the shadow of a criminal and congressional probe, Elizabeth Holmes, the chief executive officer of embattled Theranos, has stepped down from her spot on the Obama Administration’s Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, Fortune reported this morning.
The PAGE program, run by the Department of Commerce, was designed to have successful entrepreneurs use their talents to mentor the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders. Holmes has quietly stepped aside from the spot she’s held for about a year to focus on righting the company once valued at $9 billion, but now may have a value of less than $1 billion, according to some reports. Holmes was tapped in early 2015 to join the PAGE program, several months before intense scrutiny fell on the company and the efficacy of its blood-testing promises.
In a statement to Fortune, Theranos said that Holmes stepped down from the board in order to focus on Theranos and its needs, “especially as the company focuses on sharing its technologies with the scientific community.” Those needs no doubt include the company’s newest initiative, the Theranos Sample Processing Unit, which is miniaturized analytical testing equipment. Holmes unveiled the new project, which has been dubbed Edison, was presented at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC), earlier this week. During her presentation Holmes said the minilab designed to process small sample volumes across a broad set of different test methodologies. The lab is small enough that it could be maintained in many doctor’s offices, individual homes, or in areas that are critically short of lab facilities. Holmes hopes to see regulatory approval in a few years.
Holmes newest unveiling for Theranos was criticized by attendees who expected the CEO to talk about her company’s blood-testing product and the scrutiny the company is facing in the wake of a criminal investigation on whether or not Theranos and its executives misled investors as to the efficacy of its blood-testing products and Holmes’ two-year ban from the blood-testing industry after the U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services found one Theranos lab was rife with problems—problems that lead the company to invalidate two-years’ worth of testing data. That invalidation sparked lawsuits from some clients who used those test results to make medical decisions.
Congress has also weighed in on Theranos, as federal lawmakers are demanding answers from the company on its criticized lab practices and decision to void blood-testing data impacting tens of thousands of patients. On June 30, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce sent a letter to Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos’ chief executive officer, seeking information on the company’s failure to comply with federal clinical laboratory testing standards as well as the company’s decision to void two years’ worth of data sent to customers.
