Healthcare startup Theranos on Thursday deepened its war with the Wall Street Journal, charging that the paper's recent exposé into its blood testing practices is "simply wrong."
Theranos says that its breakthrough finger-stick blood testing devices, which use just a few drops, provide the same accurate results as tests done with full vials. Touting its testing process as easy and inexpensive, the company has been valued at $9 billion.
However, according to the Journal, Theranos still uses traditional lab technology for most of its tests, diluting the samples so the volume will be great enough. Several former employees also questioned the accuracy of Edison, one of the company's hand-held devices, in the Journal article. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has since confirmed that the company is only using its own flagship technology for one of its tests.
In a lengthy statement, Theranos on Thursday accused the Journal of misrepresenting the company and cherry-picking source quotes to paint the most damning picture possible:
The reporter questioned the accuracy of Theranos’ tests based on anecdotal accounts from a handful of providers. But during the reporting process, Theranos exposed the reporter for misrepresenting four of the seven stories that he gave us. The other three refused to engage with us—and those are the only stories that the reporter decided to print.
The statement, which notes that Edison is only one of many devices Theranos produces, echoes similar criticisms made by the company's CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, at a conference on Wednesday.
“I read what was written in the article,” she said. “We disagree with it. We think it was false. And we think it was misleading.”
The Journal, which reported in its original story that several of its sources changed their story after being approached by Theranos, stood by its report in a statement on Wednesday, responding to Holmes' comments:
"Theranos subsequently posted a lengthy rebuttal to the articles the Journal published last week. We carefully reviewed the company’s claims; nothing in Theranos’s report undermines the accuracy of the articles. Our journalism was free of any preconceived notions and was conducted in an entirely appropriate fashion," the outlet said.