Theranos

Theranos was an American health technology company founded in 2003 by Elizabeth Holmes, who was 19 years old at the time. The company claimed to have developed blood testing technology capable of running rapid, accurate tests from only a few drops of blood taken by finger prick, using compact devices it called Edison machines. At its peak in 2013 and 2014 Theranos raised more than 700 million dollars from investors and reached a valuation of 9 to 10 billion dollars. Starting in 2015, journalists and researchers, including Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, found that the company was in fact running most tests on conventional blood testing machines rather than its own Edison devices. Theranos faced legal action from medical regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and several state attorneys general, and it dissolved in September 2018. Elizabeth Holmes and the company former president, Sunny Balwani, were criminally charged with wire fraud and conspiracy. Holmes was convicted in January 2022 and sentenced to more than eleven years in prison, and Balwani received a sentence of nearly thirteen years.