2 ms·
This Theranos story just keeps getting more and more bizarre. George Church publicly criticized its board in a remark to the WaPo (http://www.washingtonpost.com
by srunni 11y ago
This Theranos story just keeps getting more and more bizarre. George Church publicly criticized its board in a remark to the WaPo (http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/15/the-wildly-hyped-9-billion-blood-test-company-that-no-one-really-understands/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/15/th...). Considering that Holmes is on the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows, while Church is one of its most prominent researchers, why is he suddenly speaking out? If someone like him was concerned about Theranos, how did she end up on the Board of Fellows in the first place?
Then Michael Moritz of Sequoia specifically pointed to Theranos as an example of the 'subprime unicorn' boom (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/91063628-73f5-11e5-bdb1-e6e4767162cc.html http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/91063628-73f5-11e5-bdb1-e6e4767162...), which is a pretty odd choice, considering the vast majority of unicorns are software companies with very different risks from what Theranos faces. DFJ is one of Theranos's investors (https://www.facebook.com/dfj/posts/10101511622019206 https://www.facebook.com/dfj/posts/10101511622019206), and I can't imagine Moritz would want to publicly antagonize them.
And why did the Murdoch-owned Journal publish the original article anyway, despite the Theranos board being stacked with Republican heavyweights? What's the point of having Henry Kissinger and George Shultz on your board, if not to prevent these sorts of incidents?
- noname123 11y ago> Considering that Holmes is on the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows, while Church is one of its most prominent researchers, why is he suddenly speaking out? I think Dr.Church's lab is very prominent in the field of synthetic biology; if I have to guess, his lab's work funding comes from lots of federal research grants outside of Harvard Medical school. So financially and politically, I don't think his hands are tied at all. Also on principle, as a tenured faculty in academia, I don't think he is bound by the same rules/expectations as a FTE at a regular company.
- srunni 11y agoI'm not saying that I'm surprised that he spoke out - I mean the timing of it is unusual. Why didn't he say something when Holmes was appointed to the Board of Fellows, or when the company first started its PR blitz in late 2013? Theranos's unusual board has been in the news for a long time: http://fortune.com/2014/06/12/theranos-board-directors/ http://fortune.com/2014/06/12/theranos-board-directors/
- dekhn 11y agoI am only responding to your last paragraph: the point of having those people on your board is to navigate the government bureaucracy.