Blood-test startups emerge from controversy

SAN FRANCISCO: As Daniel Levner tells it, the “Theranos effect” came in three distinct waves. First, he says, when the company was at its peak, many investors wouldn’t bother funding other blood-testing startups, because how could anyone compete with the youngest, female, self-made billionaire? Then, as news broke that the technology might not work as advertised, investors began to wince at any sight of blood businesses.

Finally, when a seminal book on the company’s spiral to dissolution hit stores last year, it became clear that the problems were unique to Theranos, says Levner, who co-founded a blood-test startup. The account described Elizabeth Holmes (pic) as a zealot chasing a dream without the science or ethics to carry her there.