追い詰められる期待の星

画期的な血液検査を開発したと注目を集めていたTheranosという会社。昨年WSJの調査報道で実情が伴っていないことを暴露されて話題になりましたが、政府調査でもいろいろな問題を指摘されてしまっているようです。W

BUSINESS
Theranos Devices Often Failed Accuracy Requirements
Government report details deficiencies found with Edison blood-testing machines
By JOHN CARREYROU and CHRISTOPHER WEAVER
March 31, 2016 7:06 p.m. ET

The blood-testing devices that Theranos Inc. touted as revolutionary often failed to meet the company’s own accuracy requirements for a range of tests, including one to help detect cancer, according to a federal inspection report.

A redacted version of the report was released late Thursday. A full version was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The 121-page document details deficiencies found by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during its inspection of the closely held company’s Newark, Calif., laboratory last fall.

冒頭の文でThe blood-testing devices that Theranos Inc. touted as revolutionary often failed to meet the company’s own accuracy requirementsと動詞toutが使われていますがここでは「実情はわからないが売り込んでいる」というニュアンスですね。

（オックスフォード）
tout
[transitive] tout somebody/something (as something)
to try to persuade people that somebody/something is important or valuable by praising them/it
She's being touted as the next leader of the party.
Their much-touted expansion plans have come to nothing.

WSJは購読者向けですのでFortuneの記事を見ていきます。

Theranos on the Ropes as Scathing Regulatory Report Is Made Public
by Roger Parloff @rparloff APRIL 1, 2016, 6:50 AM EDT

Another punishing article in the Wall Street Journal Thursday evening, revealing the depths of the problems that led federal regulators to cite a Theranos lab for multiple “serious deficiencies” in January, raises the question of how many more setbacks the young blood analytics company can survive.

According to the article, regulators at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have so far found the company’s plan to fix deficiencies at its Newark, Calif. lab last January “inadequate” and they plan to impose sanctions against Theranos that could range from fines to suspension of their right to test human samples.

WSJの記事はCMSかTheranosからのリークがあったとFortuneはみています。Theranosの機器を導入していたドラッグストアのWalgreensが契約を破棄する可能性にも言及しています。

The 1,400-word Journal article provides a close analysis of a nonpublic, unredacted version of the highly technical, 121-page CMS inspection report. A redacted version of that report was publicly released only minutes before the Journal article came out. To me, the ongoing boldness of the leaks to the Journal suggest a level of outrage about Theranos’s conduct on the part of either CMS officials or among Theranos’s own high-level employees or, again, both.

In any case, even if the CMS gives Theranos another chance, it’s highly unclear whether Walgreens—which hosts 43 of Theranos’s 45 blood collection centers—will be as charitable. (It already suspended the operations of its Theranos’s wellness center in Palo Alto, which had depended on the Newark lab.)



Theranos側のプレスリリースはこんな時でもポジティブ前向きに書かれています。都合の悪い出来事もどのようにしたら前向きな調子で書くことができるかという参考にできるかもしれませんが、Fortuneは手厳しく批判します。

Theranos Statement on CMS 2567 Report
PALO ALTO, CA (March 31, 2016) – Quality and patient safety is our top priority. Theranos submitted a Plan of Correction to CMS and related evidence that addressed how the company has actively ensured that our lab operates at the highest standard. We’ve made mistakes in the past in the Newark, CA lab, but when the company was made aware of the deficiencies we have dedicated every resource to remedy those failures. As part of that comprehensive review and our review of CMS’s survey findings we have taken the following actions:

（中略）

We will continue to work with CMS to ensure every issue has been fixed completely. We recognize the critical role they play in the laboratory industry, and will continue our work to implement best-in-class policies and procedures. Theranos shares the same goal as CMS, which is to provide best quality care to our patients.
This has only made the company stronger and we are better for it today.
Brooke Buchanan
Vice President of Communications
Theranos Inc.

TheranosのstatementへのFortuneの問題の指摘の仕方はオーソドックスな書き方ですね。

There are two main issues for ....
First, ....
Second, ....

There are two main issues for Theranos that are not fully put to rest by its statement, however.
First, part of the problem the CMS seemed to find—the use of proprietary equipment that was not producing results within acceptable levels of precision during proficiency testing—suggests that its proprietary methods may simply not work well enough for certain kinds of tests, or at least that they are still not yet ready for prime time more than two years after the company started offering tests to the public.
Second, the notion that problems of this gravity resulted solely from certain failings of the previous lab crew at Newark is not credible. The lab was also the responsibility of the chief operating officer, Sunny Balwani, who is president of the company. A former Microsoft official and entrepreneur, he comes from a software background, not a lab background, which may be part of the problem.

2年前のFortuneの特集記事を読んでElizabeth Holmesを知って感心しきりだった自分としては今でも彼女を応援したくなりますが、なかなか難しい状況ですね。小保方さんを今でも信じている人って、こんな気持ちなのかもしれないなと変なことを思ってしまいました。