Theranos used its scientific conference presentation to unveil its new products - and people weren't loving it
Lydia Ramsey
The presentation, part of the AACC conference, took place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center's ballroom. It was packed to capacity. In it, she demonstrated Theranos' new blood-testing products in development, including a new processor called the miniLab (the technology that can run small amounts of blood - past versions were referred to as "Edison") and the Theranos Virtual Analyzer. They're Theranos' latest attempt to do what Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes calls a "decentralized" lab, meaning that you can process the test without necessarily shipping it off to a brick-and-mortar lab.
Here's what the miniLab looks like:
Lydia Ramsey
But those expecting to see large sets of independently reviewed data were sorely disappointed by the product reveal.
Regarding Theranos' broad claims of being able to run 70+ tests on a single drop of blood, moderator Stephen Master told Holmes, "The evidence you presented fell far short of that." The comment was met with clapping from the audience. A few other critical questions of Theranos' blood-testing data also garnered applause. @lydiaramsey125 @ddiamond I'm in the back of the room & I'm glad my kids weren't here to hear what the first wave of departures had to say.
Those live-tweeting during the event didn't seem too pleased either.
Liz Holmes basically used #AACC2016 as WWDC to announce her new product.#Theranos
- Prashant Deva (@pdeva) August 1, 2016
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." - all I can think after Elizabeth Holmes #Theranos presentation at #AACC2016
- Ade Adamson (@AAdamsonMD) August 1, 2016
Now that I've seen the tech, it's hard for me to believe testing would actually be affordable. #AACC2016
- Kelly Swails (@kellyswails) August 1, 2016
Some on Twitter, however, did seem to be a bit more willing to be patient.
@lydiaramsey125 @megtirrell with a given situation, you can't expect all the answers at once! Time&their efforts may offer hopeful answers!
- Ankush Argade, PhD (@agoldenbay) August 1, 2016
Now that the new technology has been unveiled, the next step appears to be to wait until there can be the full data to back it up. Holmes said in the presentation that the company plans to submit data for peer review and FDA approval on this new technology.
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