FLICKR, STEVE JURVETSONTheranos, a Silicon Valley biotech company criticized for its opacity, received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its finger-prick blood test for herpes last week (July 2). The review by the regulatory agency was voluntary.
“I think that getting FDA clearance is a step in the right direction, and Theranos should be congratulated for doing this,” Stanford University’s John Ioannidis wrote in an e-mail to The Washington Post. “However, I still believe that it is important also to have the full information available in the scientific community through peer-reviewed publications on methods and results.”
As Business Insider reported, Theranos is valued is $9 billion dollars and, to protect its trade secrets, does not publish its research in peer-reviewed journals. According to the article, “In some ways, the test’s success shouldn't be a surprise. Based on what we can deduce from the scant technical information that [founder and CEO Elizabeth] Holmes has shared, Theranos’ technology isn't necessarily such a departure from ...
