Palo Alto, California (CNN)Elizabeth Holmes, the CEO of Theranos, escorted CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta around her famously secretive research and development lab like the proud owner she is. The two are dressed in obligatory blue lab coats, safety goggles and bright blue latex gloves.
Holmes began getting media attention in 2014, when she promised that her biotech startup would revolutionize lab testing by delivering faster, cheaper and more accessible results. Overnight, Theranos became the darling "unicorn" of venture capitalists, estimated to be worth as much as $9 billion.
Holmes showed Gupta specimens tucked under chemical hoods. She pointed to a temperature-controlled unit stacked with white boxes labeled "Dengue Clinical Samples." She warmly introduced a woman wearing a white lab coat with the word "Theranos" stitched over her heart.
Until now, "no one (other than employees from Theranos), ever in here," said Holmes, the woman previously described as the world's youngest female billionaire, as she pauses at a door for a lab labeled "Edison."
The 13-year-old company has made large promises but operates under a regulatory cloud. Holmes, ever the charismatic entrepreneur, had been a regular feature in business and fashion magazines until she started lying low the past few months.
Currently, the medical startup is facing government investigations and at least a dozen lawsuits, and it lost its main retail partner, Walgreens. It was the subject of a high-profile investigation by the Wall Street Journal.
Then, in July, Holmes heard news that would test her future as well as the company's.
A Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services investigation into the company's Newark, California, lab, found major problems. The investigation said there was lack of proper oversight with the tests, flaws in the way some of the hematology tests were run and insufficient documentation, and overall, the work was "of immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety." Theranos was then forced to void two years of that lab's results.
Regulators also revoked the license of its Newark blood-testing facility and legally banned Holmes from owning or operating a lab for two years. (The company can appeal that decision, which would go into effect in early September.)
Forbes, the magazine that once named Holmes America's richest self-made woman, worth $4.5 billion, lowered its estimation of her net worth to "nothing."
"The headlines are not always accurate," she said. But she admits she does read some of the negative press.
"It's really painful to see some of the things that have been written," Holmes said. "But you have two choices, I think, when you go through something like that. Either you let it tear you down, or you use it to become better."
She told CNN she's choosing the latter and will keep her company open. With some leadership changes and a new medical advisory board, she has ambitious plans to grow.
Source :http://edition.cnn.com/
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