Theranos has been on quite the roller-coaster ride lately — and it hasn’t been pretty. But it looks like the next attempt at reputation and credibility redemption comes in the form of an expanded Medical Advisory Board.
The company recently hosted three scientific review sessions in Palo Alto with leading laboratory and medical experts who were invited to review the company’s proprietary technologies.
According to an email from a spokesperson, those in attendance had full exposure to all current systems, devices and data. If that’s the case, they are jumping in head-first to what has publicly appeared to be a faulty operation and are willing to potentially pull the company back up.
Theranos’ Scientific & Medical Advisory Board members now include:
- Susan A. Evans, PhD, FACB, former president of the American Association For Clinical Chemistry (AACC)
- Bill Foege, MD, former Director of the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Ann M. Gronowski, PhD, DABCC, Department of Pathology and Immunology and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
- David Helfet, MD, Hospital for Special Surgery and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medicine
- Larry J. Kricka, D. Phil, FRCPath, University of Pennsylvania
- Jack Ladenson, PhD, DABCC, Washington University School of Medicine;
- Andy O. Miller, MD, Hospital for Special Surgery and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medicine
- Steven Spitalnik, MD, Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC)
Out of the eight members announced as part of the new board, only two are those who were previously involved – Dr. Foege and Dr. Helfet.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Maybe this new board indicates that Theranos could make a comeback from the significant criticism in recent months.
Photo: Flickr user Steve Jurvetson
