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The Importance of Transparency in Scientific Innovation

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The health technology company Theranos once received enthusiastic media coverage for its promises of radical innovation in clinical laboratory testing and its eye-catching valuation of $9 billion. Now the company can’t seem to stop the unending stream of bad news. In addition to Theranos’ previous troubles (discussed here and here), the company is now under investigation by both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. Recently, Sunny Balwani, the company’s president and chief operating officer, departed Theranos.

Many of Theranos’ problems ultimately reflect systemic issues within medical technology innovation. Multiple articles have begun to discuss Theranos as a cautionary tale for innovators and investors. With the advantages of hindsight, a clear theme emerges from the morass Theranos finds itself in: the company’s lack of transparency about its science is at the root of many of its problems. Theranos’ refusal to allow scrutiny about its science and claims prevented effective oversight and earlier checks on the company’s grandiose claims. This negatively impacted the company’s relationships with regulators, its own board, and its business partners, and has dramatically undermined the company’s claims.

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Proposed CMS Sanctions Threaten Theranos’ Future

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By Katherine Kwong

The news for blood testing company Theranos has gotten even worse since this blog’s last discussion of the company’s woes. Despite the company’s statements at the end of March that it would correct all of the issues CMS had found, new reports have emerged that Theranos’ California lab may see its federal license revoked. Additionally, Theranos’ founder, Elizabeth Holmes, and Theranos’ president, Sunny Balwani, may be banned from owning or operating any testing laboratories for two years. These potential sanctions have been proposed after regulators concluded Theranos has failed to adequately address concerns raised about its tests by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

How did Theranos get to this point? Read More

Additional Troubles for Theranos

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By Katherine Kwong

The onslaught of bad news for Theranos, the start-up laboratory services company plagued with troubles since last October, continued this week with a new round of reports and press coverage. First, on March 28, the Journal of Clinical Investigation published an article that found that Theranos’ tests tended to produce more irregular results than those of two other laboratory services companies. Then, on March 31, an inspection report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was released, revealing numerous problems at Theranos that led to quality control problems, possibly leading to inaccurate test results for patients. The article and report both raise additional questions about Theranos’ claims and long-term viability – a steep letdown from early hype about the company, which promised to revolutionize the laboratory testing industry. The story of Theranos’ troubles highlights how scientific flaws and regulatory mishaps can lead to serious problems for companies seeking to innovate in the health sciences space.

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Data Mining and Pregnancy Prediction

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By Katherine Kwong

Our private health decisions may not be as private as we’d like to think. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal revealed a potentially uncomfortable situation: employers using health care analytics companies to mine employees’ health data to determine which employees may be about to make certain health decisions.

While this type of data analytics can be used to predict a variety of health conditions (ranging from an increased risk of diabetes to back surgery to pregnancy), the most attention-grabbing example discussed was pregnancy. By obtaining permission to analyze employees’ medical information, companies such as Castlight are able to look at factors such as search queries and whether employees have been filling their birth control prescriptions to predict pregnancies. Some commentators expressed concerns that this type of information could be used by companies in improper ways. Read More

Studies Find ACA Did Not Lead to Substantial Increases in Part-Time Employment

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By Katherine Kwong

Analysts from all over the political spectrum have long suggested that the Affordable Care Act’s provisions could lead to a reduction in employment numbers. New research suggests that contrary to these expectations, the available data do not support claims that the ACA would lead to a substantial shift from full-time workers to part-time workers. The current evidence also does not support claims that there would be substantially more part-time workers and people leaving the workforce due to the ACA’s provisions expanding Medicaid eligibility.

Many politicians have specifically expressed concern that the ACA’s requirement that companies with 100 or more employees provide health insurance to employees working 30 or more hours per week would lead to companies shifting employees from full-time work to part-time. Republican presidential candidates including Ted Cruz and Donald Trump have stated that they believe Obamacare makes more workers part-time instead of full-time. While campaigning in Iowa, even Hilary Clinton said she believes the ACA created “some unfortunate disincentives that discourage full-time employment.” Read More

The Ongoing Push for E-Cigarette Regulations

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By Katherine Kwong

Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics publicly joined the group of advocates for federal regulations on e-cigarettes. The AAP urged the government to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to everyone under age 21 and prohibit advertising to minors, and advocated for high taxes on e-cigarette products similar to those on other tobacco products. In its announcement, the AAP cited developing brains’ vulnerability to nicotine and the potential harms to long-term health as reasons for its recommendations to keep e-cigarettes away from youths. It also recommended that smoke-free laws governing secondhand smoke explicitly include e-cigarettes, saying, “[t]he aerosol emitted from e-cigarettes is not harmless; it contains a variety of toxic chemicals, including some carcinogens and significant amounts of nicotine.”

A recently released poll found that a majority of Americans (57%) believe e-cigarettes should be regulated like tobacco products, while less than 25% of respondents felt they should not be. The Food and Drug Administration proposed e-cigarette regulations in 2014, and recently sent the regulations to the Office of Management and Budget for review. While the final form of the regulations is still unknown, the proposal banned the sale of e-cigarettes to minors and required e-cigarette labels include a list of ingredients and a disclosure that they contain nicotine.

There is growing concern about the potential health risks posed by e-cigarettes. Advocates for restrictions on e-cigarettes have long warned that unregulated e-cigarettes frequently expose users to the harmful effects of nicotine, as well as toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde, benzene, and other carcinogens. There have also been warnings about the risk that e-cigarette use may lead to greater social acceptance of smoking and higher rates of tobacco use. (Despite frequent claims that e-cigarettes may help with smoking cessation, longitudinal studies consistently find no evidence that e-cigarette use increases quitting rates.) Anecdotal evidence has linked e-cigarette use to pneumonia and other lung problems. Forty percent of e-cigarette users reported having health concerns about their use.

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23andMe Releases Transparency Report About Law Enforcement Requests for Customers’ Data

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By Katherine Kwong

The direct-to-consumer genetic testing company 23andMe was widely discussed in the news recently after it announced it would resume providing health information to customers. Less widely reported was another important announcement: for what appears to be the first time, 23andMe has released a public report about the number of requests it has received from law enforcement seeking its customers’ genetic information. According to the Transparency Report, 23andMe has received four requests for user data from law enforcement, with five different affected users.

Although 23andMe has thus far successfully fought off all of the law enforcement requests for its users’ data, there has long been concern about the potential release of 23andMe’s customers’ information to law enforcement. The 23andMe Privacy Statement states, “23andMe will preserve and disclose any and all information to law enforcement agencies” when it believes it is required to do so. Even though 23andMe has not yet disclosed any of its users’ information, the day may soon come when it is required to do so. That disclosure could have significant impacts for not only users who consented to the use of their data, but for users’ families, who may be implicated through familial DNA searches.

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Artemisinin: Worthy of Nobel Prize, but Growing Concerns About Resistance

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Artemisinin, a drug used to treat malaria, has been a recent topic of public discussion after its discovery was recognized with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on October 5. The 2015 prize was awarded to three researchers who developed treatments for parasite-caused diseases, with half the award going to Youyou Tu, who is credited with the discovery of artemisinin. Artemisinin has benefited hundreds of millions of people around the world. Yet the recognition for artemisinin’s discovery comes at a time when public health officials are becoming more concerned about its ongoing effectiveness and struggling to implement policies to slow the spread of artemisinin resistance. Read More