Beleaguered diagnostics company Theranos has been hit with another lawsuit, this time from a patient claiming that an inaccurate blood test resulted in medical decisions that triggered a heart attack. It’s at least the ninth civil suit filed against the onetime Silicon Valley darling, according to Ars Technica.
According to the suit, filed as a class action in federal court in Phoenix, a man identified only as “R.C.” suffered a heart attack less than a month after a Theranos blood test showed “clear” blood-sugar and lipid levels. The results caused the man’s cardiologist to recommend no changes to his medications.
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.
The heart attack caused the man to need two stents and a hospitalization.
“Additional blood work performed during his hospitalization strongly suggested that the near-contemporaneous Theranos blood test was inaccurate and that R.C. and his cardiologist’s reliance on the Theranos’ test results was potentially inaccurate or even harmful,” the suit said.
The lawsuit also named former Theranos partner Walgreens as a defendant. The plaintiff had his blood test performed at a Theranos testing center inside an Arizona Walgreens store.
Photo: Flickr user Brian Turner
