Startups, Diagnostics

Elizabeth Holmes to finally unveil Theranos data in August — if she lasts

Elizabeth Holmes, CEO of erstwhile diagnostics company Theranos, will finally reveal data about its secretive technology at the AACC conference this August.

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Right on the heels of today’s “Today” show interview — in which Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes said she’s “devastated” by the failures of her company — we have some bold news:

Holmes plans on finally pulling back the veil on the company’s “nanotainers,” its Edison device and other proprietary research in August at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry‘s annual scientific meeting. Of course, this begs the question:

Think Holmes will still be at Theranos this August?

This is clearly a damage control play, because Holmes’ reign at Theranos has become all the more tenuous in the past week. The Wall Street Journal reported a few days ago that Holmes could be booted from Theranos, citing a letter from regulators that says she hasn’t done enough to fix Theranos’ copious problems.

At the August conference, Holmes will share some long-closeted data to a gathering of highly skeptical scientists. She’ll accept questions from the audience to “further clarify the science, accuracy, and reliability of Theranos’ technologies, as well as its impact on patient care and safety,” AACC said in a statement.

The secretive company has been under fire since October, when the Wall Street Journal wrote a damning exposé about the failings of its single-drop-of-blood diagnostic tools.

Looks like pressure from the Journal and, of course, the letters from regulators — have finally forced Holmes’ hand far enough that she feels the need to speak out. She finally addressed the media in Monday’s “Today” interview. Now, provided CMS doesn’t remove her from her helm, Holmes will have three-and-a-half months to prep for a long-awaited and undoubtedly compelling Q&A fest. After all, clinical chemists in particular have been hankering for a gander at her data.

The last time Holmes made a public appearance at a conference was at last October’s Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovations Summit. She said at the time that Theranos would finally start publishing its data:

“I was never against that,” Holmes said. She explained the company thought that data published through FDA decisions would “be more transparent.” But, in response to the criticism, they’ll begin publishing, she said.

Any efforts of transparency on Theranos’ part since October have been overshadowed by blow after blow from regulators finding flaws with the company’s diagnostic practices.

And in March, Holmes was slated to speak at the Future of Genomics conference at the Scripps Translational Science Institute in San Diego. At the last moment, Holmes was a no-show.

So let’s see if the Theranos CEO makes it to AACC.

If she’s still CEO.

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