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Wednesday, Mar 21 2018

Full Issue

Video Footage Emerges Of Theranos' Mysterious Second-In-Command

Despite being Theranos' No. 2 executive, there's little trace of Sunny Balwani's image on the internet. But newly found footage shows Balwani giving a pitch for the company in 2014.

The day after the story came out, though, an eagle-eyed sleuth on Twitter pointed us to something better:聽Video footage聽of Balwani talking up Theranos in front of an聽Arizona legislative committee聽in March 2014. (That was around the time Theranos, then at its peak valuation of $9 billion, started opening testing centers in Walgreens pharmacies in Arizona.) Donning a dark suit and tie and a blandly corporate affect, Balwani gave an聽11 1/2-minute pitch that is vintage pre-scandal Theranos: He talked about working on 鈥渟omething that we believe is magical.鈥 He cited glowing testimonials from patients whose blood tests, we would later learn, were not being processed the way Theranos had promised. (Robbins, 3/20)

In other Theranos news聽鈥

Kaiser Health News: Reporter鈥檚 Notebook: The Tale Of Theranos And The Mysterious Fire Alarm聽

It was November 2014, and I was working on a feature story about a buzzed-about blood-testing company in Silicon Valley that promised to 鈥渄isrupt鈥 the lab industry with new technology. The company, Theranos, claimed its revolutionary finger-prick test would be a cheap and less painful way to screen for hundreds of diseases with just a few drops of blood. Old-fashioned venous blood draws, where the patient watches as vial after vial of blood is collected, would quickly become obsolete, Theranos promised. (Gold, 3/21)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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