Elizabeth Holmes: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Rkaplan (talk | contribs)
73 edits
Undid revision 688252506 by Utcursch (talk)
Rkaplan (talk | contribs)
73 edits
Undid revision 688252422 by Utcursch (talk)
Line 39: Line 39:


== Business career ==
== Business career ==

Holmes proposed establishing a company to Robertson in the fall of 2003, while she was a 19-year-old [[Sophomore year|sophomore]] at Stanford. She used money that her parents had saved for her education to establish ''Real-Time Cures'' in Palo Alto. Later, she changed the company's name to [[Theranos]] (an amalgam of "therapy" and "diagnosis"),<ref name="msn.com"/> because she believed that many people had a cynical reaction to the word "cure."<ref name="Roger2014"/> Holmes initially worked out of a basement of a group college house.<ref name="online"/> She dropped out a semester later to pursue her business career full-time. Professor Robertson served as a director of the company.
Holmes proposed establishing a company to Robertson in the fall of 2003, while she was a 19-year-old [[Sophomore year|sophomore]] at Stanford. She used money that her parents had saved for her education to establish ''Real-Time Cures'' in Palo Alto. Later, she changed the company's name to [[Theranos]] (an amalgam of "therapy" and "diagnosis"),<ref name="msn.com"/> because she believed that many people had a cynical reaction to the word "cure."<ref name="Roger2014"/> Holmes initially worked out of a basement of a group college house.<ref name="online"/> She dropped out a semester later to pursue her business career full-time. Professor Robertson served as a director of the company.


Line 47: Line 46:


As of 2014 Holmes has 18 US patents and 66 non-US patents in her name and is listed as a co-inventor on over one hundred patent applications.<ref name="Roger2014"/> Holmes is the youngest self-made female billionaire on the [[Forbes 400]] list at #111, with an estimated net worth of $4.6 billion.<ref name="Forbes111"/>
As of 2014 Holmes has 18 US patents and 66 non-US patents in her name and is listed as a co-inventor on over one hundred patent applications.<ref name="Roger2014"/> Holmes is the youngest self-made female billionaire on the [[Forbes 400]] list at #111, with an estimated net worth of $4.6 billion.<ref name="Forbes111"/>

In October 2015, an investigative report in the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' stated that Theranos had exaggerated the reach and reliability of its technology, a claim denied by Holmes. Several clinical pathologists and other medical experts also expressed skepticism about Theranos's technology. A week later, the [[Food and Drug Administration]] (FDA) stated that the company's miniature blood containers were unapproved for any test other than the [[herpes]] test. Subsequently, Theranos limited the use of its proprietary technology to only one of the 200 tests offered by the company.<ref name="NYT_James_2015"/><ref name="Dan_Fortune_2015">{{cite news |url=http://fortune.com/2015/10/15/theranos-unicorns/ |title=Theranos controversy has little to do with 'unicorns' |author=Dan Primack |date=15 October 2015 |publisher=Fortune}}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 19:01, 30 October 2015

Elizabeth Holmes
Born
Elizabeth Anne Holmes

(1984-02-03) February 3, 1984 (age 40)
Washington, D.C.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materStanford University (dropped out)[1]
OccupationHealth technology entrepreneur
TitleFounder & CEO, Theranos
Term2003–present
Parent(s)Christian Holmes IV
Noel Anne Daoust
Websitetheranos.com

Elizabeth Anne Holmes (born February 3, 1984) is an American entrepreneur.[3] She is the CEO of Theranos, a blood test company, which she founded in 2003 at age 19 while she was a chemical engineering major at Stanford University.

Theranos was originally based on her invention and patent for a way to run 30 common lab tests on blood obtained via a fingerstick using microfluidics or "lab-on-a-chip" technology—a much faster and cheaper method than traditional lab testing techniques.[4][3][5] The company entered into a partnership with drugstore chain Walgreens to build thousands of Wellness Centers (beginning with California and Arizona)[6] offering a full menu of blood tests directly to consumers at a charge that is generally one-quarter to one-tenth of what others charge.[7]

By 2014, the company offered 200 tests, was licensed to operate in every state in the US,[8] and was valued at nearly $10 billion.[9] Holmes was named the youngest self-made female billionaire on the 2014 Forbes 400 list, with an estimated net worth of $4.6 billion.[2]

However, an October 2015 Wall Street Journal investigative article and an unannounced FDA visit to Theranos called into question the validity of the underlying key microfluidics technology used by the firm, and whether its valuation (and hence Holmes's personal net worth) are realistic.[10][11] The company limited the use of its proprietary finger-pricking technique to only one of the 200 tests offered by it due to lack of regulatory clearance.[12] Subsequently, a key metric of Theranos valuation was notably called into question, when Walgreens placed on hold further expansion of Theranos Wellness Centers.[13]

Early life

Holmes was born in February 1984 in Washington, D.C. Her father, Christian Holmes IV, worked in the United States, Africa, and China as part of government agencies such as USAID.[1] Her mother, Noel Anne,[14] worked as a Congressional committee staffer. She has a brother, Christian Holmes V, who is the director of product management at Theranos. One of her ancestors was a founder of the Fleischmann's Yeast company.[8] She is related to actress Katherine MacDonald who was married to Christian Rasmus Holmes II (1898-1944).

As a child, she read the biography of her great-great-grandfather Christian R. Holmes, who was a surgeon, engineer, inventor, and a decorated World War I veteran. He was born in Denmark in 1857 and was the dean of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine,[15] where a hospital is named after him. The career of her ancestor inspired Elizabeth to take up medicine, but she soon found that she had a fear of needles.[8] She later described this fear as one of her motivations to launch Theranos.[4]

When she was 9, her family moved to Houston, where her father had taken up a job with Tenneco and where she attended St. John's School. Intrigued by their father's work in China, Elizabeth and her brother learned Mandarin Chinese at a young age.[8] She spent her teenage years in China and, while still in school, started a business selling C++ compilers to Chinese universities.[8][16]

Education

After graduating from St. John's School in Houston in 2002, Holmes enrolled at Stanford University to study chemical engineering. As a freshman, she was named one of the "President's Scholars" and given a stipend of $3,000 to pursue a research project. She persuaded her chemical engineering professor, Channing Robertson,[8] to use the money for a project in his lab.

Holmes supplemented her childhood knowledge of Mandarin with summer language programs at Stanford. This helped her obtain an internship at the Genome Institute of Singapore. The Institute was working on developing new methods to detect the SARS coronavirus in blood or nasal swabs.

She wrote a patent application after her return to Stanford, which she showed to Robertson,[8] that described a wearable patch that could monitor variables in the patient's blood, administer a medication, and adjust its dosage to achieve a desired effect. Further, a cellphone chip could be put on this patch for remote monitoring—so-called telemedicine. She filed the patent application in September 2003, as "Medical device for analyte monitoring and drug delivery".

Business career

Holmes proposed establishing a company to Robertson in the fall of 2003, while she was a 19-year-old sophomore at Stanford. She used money that her parents had saved for her education to establish Real-Time Cures in Palo Alto. Later, she changed the company's name to Theranos (an amalgam of "therapy" and "diagnosis"),[7] because she believed that many people had a cynical reaction to the word "cure."[8] Holmes initially worked out of a basement of a group college house.[3] She dropped out a semester later to pursue her business career full-time. Professor Robertson served as a director of the company.

The company grew gradually over the next decade, raising $400 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Larry Ellison, and others. Theranos operated in "stealth mode" during this period, remaining highly secretive to avoid potential competitors and investors who could fund a competitor. The company took three former employees to court in 2007, accusing them of misappropriating trade secrets.[16]

By 2014 the company offered 200 tests and was licensed to run in every state of the US.[8] It had 500 employees and was valued at more than $9 billion. Holmes retained control of more than 50% of the company's equity.[17]

As of 2014 Holmes has 18 US patents and 66 non-US patents in her name and is listed as a co-inventor on over one hundred patent applications.[8] Holmes is the youngest self-made female billionaire on the Forbes 400 list at #111, with an estimated net worth of $4.6 billion.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Crane, Rachel (16 October 2014). "She's America's youngest female billionaire - and a dropout". CNNMoney (New York). Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "#111 Elizabeth Holmes". Forbes 400. Forbes. Retrieved September 30, 2014. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ a b c Rago, Joseph (2013-09-08). "Elizabeth Holmes: The Breakthrough of Instant Diagnosis". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2013-09-16.
  4. ^ a b Roper, Caitlin (February 18, 2014). "This Woman Invented a Way to Run 30 Lab Tests on Only One Drop of Blood". Wired.
  5. ^ Scott, Cameron (8 November 2013). "Small, fast and cheap, Theranos is the poster child of med tech — and it's in Walgreen's". Singularity Hub. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  6. ^ "Theranos". theranos.com. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  7. ^ a b "Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes: Young entrepreneurs need "a mission"". msn.com. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Parloff, Roger (June 12, 2014). "This CEO is out for blood". Fortune Magazine. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ "Elizabeth Holmes: Youngest self-made female billionaire revolutionizing health care". cbsnews.com. 16 April 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  10. ^ Carreyrou, John (16 October 2015). "Hot Startup Theranos Dials Back Lab Tests at FDA's Behest". WSJ. Retrieved 2015-10-19.
  11. ^ James B. Stewart (29 October 2015). "The Narrative Frays for Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes". New York Times.
  12. ^ Caroline Chen (2015-10-15). "Theranos Limits Blood Technology to a Single Test Out of 200". Bloomberg.
  13. ^ "Walgreens halts expansion of Theranos centers". Fortune Magazine. 24 October 2015. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
  14. ^ Ken Auletta (15 December 2014). "One Woman's Drive to Revolutionize Medical Testing - The New Yorker". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2015-10-19.
  15. ^ Christian Rasmus Holmes. American Medical Association. 1920. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  16. ^ a b Leuty, Ron (August 30, 2013). "Theranos: The biggest biotech you've never heard of". San Francisco Business Times. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  17. ^ della Cava, Marco (July 26, 2014). "Change Agents: Elizabeth Holmes wants your blood". USA Today. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |newspaper= (help)

External links

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elizabeth_Holmes&oldid=688264915"