UNITED STATES.- In 2013, Elizabeth Holmes captivated investors by presenting with a technology that, in theory, she had developed and that promised perform clinical analyzes from a single drop of blood.
With the device it would be easier, faster and cheaper to diagnose the cancer, hypertension, diabetes or the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Second, he could perform up to 200 clinical examinations with this single sample.
Elizabeth Holmes was a chemistry student at Stanford University when she convinced entrepreneurs to invest in her company. Theranos.
Entrepreneurship achieved a valuation of $ 9 billion and the Forbes magazine ranked her as one of the richest women in the world.
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Among the investors who contributed capital for the creation of the promising company are the former president Bill Clinton, Entrepreneurs com Robert Murdoch and the Mexican Carlos Slim, As a collaboration with the Carlos Slim Foundation would be established.
The businesswoman who at just 19 began to revolutionize Silicon Valley with the promise of better preventive health, through his entrepreneurship, however, he will face U.S. justice after defrauding hundreds of investors.
The businesswoman was named the next Steve Jobs for her avant-garde ideas, even mimicking the simple, monochrome dress of the founder of Apple. Now, he could spend up to 20 years in prison being found guilty.
Workshops at home
Theranos is an Edison team – named in honor of the famous American inventor -, 1 small device similar to a home printer 43 inches high and 33 inches wide.
Holmes claimed that the machine could be one “Workshops at home” i who would soon be in every home, performing frequent medical tests. But Edison never worked.
Theranos even reached an agreement with the Walgreens pharmacy chain to have blood tests performed. Not only were there complaints because conventional blood samples were taken, i.e. not just a drop of blood as advertised, there were also misdiagnosis about cancer and HIV.
But Holmes continued to deceive investors and claimed that the tests were done in the practical laboratory, when in fact they were done on conventional machines.
the Partner
Last Friday, August 27, Holmes handed over documents accusing Ramesh Balwani, the former chief operating officer of Theranos, Ex-partner and father of his son, for psychological and sexual abuse, so that at trial Balwani could be charged with involvement in the crime of fraud.
Defense attorneys said she believed “allegedly false statements about parts of Theranos he controlled, including a claim about an association with the Walgreens pharmacy chain.”
For the above, young people from the biotechnology, health, and natural sciences sector in the United States they are now related to the fraudulent company and the image of a woman who abused the trust of many people.
With information from Texreview