Theranos put out a statement today disputing the Journal’s report but failed once again to dispel the claim. A Journal article last month reported that the Theranos-Walgreens partnership had stalled until the blood-testing company could provide more information about its finger-prick tests. However, Theranos missed the testing deadline and several former and current executives allegedly told the WSJ they had their own reservations about the accuracy of tests Theranos had administered to Safeway employees.
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Safeway is looking for a way to get out of a multi-million dollar contract with Palo Alto-based Theranos, Inc., because of problems with the company.
The Journal said the $350 million partnership, which has been dormant for about a year, had been imagined to be an important part of the grocery chain’s push into the wellness market and that it had built clinics in 800 stores that were supposed to offer Theranos blood tests. According to him, he saw that Theranos frequently extracted blood from the same person twice. The first blood sample was drawn using the finger-prick test and the second, with the conventional technique involving a needle to extract blood in the arm.
“We were disappointed to see yet another inaccurate WSJ article, entirely relying on anonymous sources”, said the Theranos statement.
There have also been concerns raised by a Safeway employee about the accuracy of the tests, after having obtained a high result in a Theranos test for a specific antigen associated with the presence of prostate cancer but later on, after getting re-tested at a different diagnostic facility, was found to have normal test results. With this, it has publicly invited third party institutions to audit, verify and publish data on its technologies, including peer-reviewed journals.
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Meanwhile, Walgreens has also recently stopped additional test center expansions with Theranos and has reportedly sought the service of an internal team to investigate the claims.
