Former Theranos employee Erika Cheung: Edison machines failed tests

SAN JOSE, CALIF. – Elizabeth Holmes was the founder and face of Theranos, however when it got here to the corporate’s laboratory, she relied on her extremely certified lab administrators and scientists.

That is the image her protection attorneys painted on Wednesday, in an try and discredit the testimony of a former Theranos lab affiliate turned whistleblower, Erika Cheung, who mentioned that the Edison blood-testing machines ceaselessly failed high quality management exams.

Lance Wade, a protection legal professional for Holmes, ran via the excessive {qualifications} of the scientists who labored at Theranos, amongst them “52 scientists with PhDs and ten medical medical doctors.”

Sporting a black and grey costume with heels, Cheung spent six hours on the stand testifying in regards to the excessive failure price and knowledge manipulation with the Edison, the corporate’s mini blood-lab machine.

“You’d have about the identical luck flipping a coin as as to if your outcomes have been proper or improper,” Cheung mentioned. “It was regarding to see this diploma of failure, this was not typical for a traditional lab.”

Cheung, who labored at Theranos for lower than a yr, mentioned her lab managers have been Mark Pandori, who has a PhD, and Adam Rosendorff, who has a medical diploma. After quitting Theranos, Cheung grew to become an advocate for ethics within the tech trade, launching a non-profit referred to as Ethics in Entrepreneurship along with her former colleague and whistleblower Tyler Shultz.

Holmes arrived to court docket in a darkish inexperienced costume with an identical masks, she was hand in hand along with her mom, Noel Holmes, who has attended each listening to for the reason that trial started final week.

Throughout one break Holmes, who has pleaded not responsible to a dozen counts of wire fraud and conspiracy, was seen hugging her mom. 

Throughout cross examination, Wade confirmed Cheung a number of validation reviews for the assays that she testified have been problematic. He pointed to the signatures of people that accepted the exams for lab use, together with a lab director and vice chairman. Holmes didn’t signal the doc.

Cheung testified that high quality management exams within the lab would typically fail so the corporate would use an “outlier deletion” system to “cherry choose” the very best knowledge factors to go. Cheung later confirmed for protection attorneys that the standard management exams weren’t achieved on human blood samples.

Earlier within the day, Cheung testified that lab staff usually manipulated the information in an try and hold the units working. She instructed the court docket that she ultimately introduced her considerations to Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, Holmes second-in-command and for a time her romantic companion.

“The suggestions and reception I bought from him was ‘what makes you suppose you are certified to make these calls, you are a current grad out of UC Berkeley, what are you aware about lab diagnostics? You don’t have any visibility on this firm,'” Cheung recalled.

Balwani, who might be tried individually subsequent yr, has additionally pleaded not responsible.

Cheung testified she took her considerations to Shultz and his grandfather, former U.S. Secretary of State and Theranos board member George Shultz.

“It was beginning to get very uncomfortable and really disturbing for me to work on the firm,” Cheung mentioned. “I used to be making an attempt to inform as many individuals as I may nevertheless it was simply not getting via to folks.”

Cheung’s testimony will proceed on Friday.