questioned especially the notion that you could get enough blood from
a finger to run tests accurately. Tracy’s skepticism gave Kate pause.
Kate and Mike’s main contacts at Theranos were Christian Holmes
and his two Duke fraternity brothers, Dan Edlin and Jeff Blickman.
Mike called them the “Therabros.” He and Kate talked on the phone
and exchanged emails with them frequently in the lead-up to the
website launch. Theranos had initially wanted to go live with the site
on April 1, 2013, but pushed the date back several times. A new launch
date was set for September, but as the new deadline approached and
Kate and Mike pressed the Therabros for substantiation to back up the
claims Elizabeth wanted to make, it became apparent to them that
some were exaggerated. For instance, they gleaned that Theranos
couldn’t produce tests results in less than thirty minutes. Kate watered
that statement down to say that the results were ready in “4 hours or
less,” which she still had her doubts about. Kate and Mike also began
to suspect that Theranos couldn’t perform all its blood tests from small
finger-stick draws and that it used traditional venous draws for some
tests. They suggested adding a disclaimer to the website to make that
clear, but the response they got from Christian and Jeff was that
Elizabeth didn’t want a disclaimer.
Mike was getting worried about Chiat\Day’s legal liability. He went
back and read the agency’s contract with Theranos. It indemnified
Chiat\Day for any claims made in marketing materials that the client
had approved in writing. He fired off an email to Joe Sena, an attorney
at the agency’s outside law firm, Davis & Gilbert, asking if Chiat\Day
should make Theranos use specific language in its written approvals.
Sena replied that it wasn’t necessary but urged him to keep track of
those written approvals.
Kate, meanwhile, was sparring with Christian and Jeff about a line
Elizabeth wanted to add to the website that read, “Send samples to
us.” Kate asked them what logistical system the company had in place
to transport the blood samples from physicians’ offices to its lab and
eventually concluded it didn’t have any. Doctors who “registered” for
the service would merely be generating an automated email routed to
Jeff’s in-box. What would happen after that was anyone’s guess. No