Theranos exploited black box medicine

Elizabeth Holmes, the 38 year old founder of failed diagnostic start-up Theranos, was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison this November.1 The sentence was handed down nearly a year after she was found guilty of defrauding investors about her finger prick blood testing devices, and seven years after the Wall Street Journal published its first investigation exposing the company’s struggles.2 3 Her co-conspirator and ex-boyfriend Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani was also convicted this summer and sentenced to almost 13 years in prison.4