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- [Narrator] Biotech company Theranos
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promised a blood testing revolution.
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With just a single drop of blood,
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their machine could run hundreds of medical tests.
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Except the technology didn't exist,
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at least not in the way that its founder, Elizabeth Holmes,
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envisioned it.
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But that dream isn't over yet.
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Theranos made some pretty lofty promises
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that would have upended traditional blood testing
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as we knew it, with its mini lab,
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dubbed the Edison.
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- If you could have just a single drop of blood,
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you wouldn't need to go to a lab
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and get your blood drawn for testing.
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It would make it so much easier.
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Really revolutionize the blood testing industry.
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Like, that's a appealing promise.
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- [Narrator] Nicole Wetsman is a health reporter
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at The Verge.
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She's spent time covering the Theranos trial
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from the courthouse in San Jose
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and explained to us why the blood testing industry
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even needed a company like Theranos to begin with.
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- For a standard blood test,
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you have to go and you go sit down and a lab tech
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will draw vials of blood out of your arm.
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And then probably get sent out to a lab or, you know,
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some larger offices might have machines in house.
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So Theranos claimed to be able to create a system
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that would kind of circumvent a lot of those challenges.
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So they said that they could have a tabletop doctor's office
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sized machine that could run hundreds of blood tests
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on a single drop of blood.
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- [Narrator] But even from the beginning,
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pathologist questioned the accuracy.
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- What I'm surprised about is, you know, you look,
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you look at the people in the room
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and there's clearly been a lot of interest in your company.
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I would argue that a lot of that comes from the fact
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that there were these claims that were made
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that were very broad early on.
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70 tests, the whole panoply of lab tests
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from a couple of drops of blood
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and the evidence that you presented fell far short of that.
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- There are things that you can do
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with a single drop of blood.
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You can test your blood sugar level for example,
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but there are other things where a single drop
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is just not realistic.
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There might not be high enough concentration
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of what you're trying to measure in a tiny drop.
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- [Narrator] Studies have shown that important
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blood markers, such as white blood cell count or hemoglobin,
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can vary greatly from one drop to another one
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obtained via the finger.
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But even if individual drops were identical,
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certain tests need to separate out cells with a centrifuge
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or add specific chemicals to the samples
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that would make repeat testing impossible.
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Theranos's ambitions are commendable,
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but the idea was nothing new.
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- So there are things that Theranos was trying to do
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that are also things that more realistic researchers
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are also working on.
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You kind of have a couple of main things happening.
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You have the single drop of blood issue.
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You have the lots of tests on one sample issue,
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and you have the let's shrink this all down
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to a small machine.
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And those all kind of individually are things
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that people are working on, but those are really hard.
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And there are a lot of kind of really significant challenges
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that a lot of smart people are working on.
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Experts do not really think that that sort of pie in the sky
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vision is something that's really going to be feasible,
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despite kind of the potential for a lot of this stuff
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to really be improved and innovated on in reality.
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- [Narrator] While many researchers have been trying
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to advance this technology in labs,
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a ton of buzz surrounded Theranos
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because it was telling investors
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it could all be done right now.
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According to testimony from the trial,
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Holmes was telling investors that the machines
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were already being used on military helicopters
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in combat zones.
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These claims would not only come back to haunt
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Elizabeth Holmes in her fraud trial,
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but they also had a chilling effect on other research
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being conducted in the field of blood testing.
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- Folks were working on blood test technology
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and trying to shrink down tests or do more with less
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had trouble getting funding or interest
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because investors said well, Theranos has already done this.
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So why should we invest with you?
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And then when it came out that Theranos
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couldn't actually do what they said they were going to do,
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you had sort of the opposite problem where people would say,
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oh, but isn't that all just a scam?
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And so that made it harder for people to attract funding
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for their more realistic projects.
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- [Narrator] As we approach the end of the trial
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of Elizabeth Holmes,
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it's become clear that this trial has uncovered many cracks
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in the way that startups operate,
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particularly healthcare startups.
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- The Theranos scandal and fallout
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has really made people kind of question
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whether the Silicon Valley startup move fast,
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break things ethos is the approach we should be taking
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to medical technology where people's health
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and lives are sort of really on the line here.
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And the accuracy and success of these technologies
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has really important implications for people's health.
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- [Narrator] And because of this,
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everyone will remain highly skeptical
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of any new advancements in the blood testing industry
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for years to come.
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- Like anything in science and medical technology,
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you're going to see progress and you're going to see
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kind of iterative innovation.
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But what we're likely not going to see is someone pop out
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of out of the ground with a device
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that's going to change everything.
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You know,
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science is hard and we want to be careful
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with how we move forward and make sure that the progress
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we're making is actually real progress.