Stanford alum and disgraced CEO Elizabeth Holmes was the media darling of the biotechnology industry. With her company Theranos, Holmes made grandiose promises of revolutionizing the world of healthcare as we know it[8].
“The Edison,” as Holmes referred to it, was a machine that would forever change the way healthcare providers and physicians diagnosed their patients. With only a few drops of blood – in comparison to the 0.17-0.34 fluid ounces of blood needed for a traditional blood test – the Edison could run approximately a thousand medical tests on one patient, identifying biological markers for high cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, and more[8].
For people who were reluctant to get important medical tests for fear of needles or a fear of getting their blood drawn, the Edison was their savior. For companies hungering to be associated with the next money-making venture, the Edison was a gold mine.
Fast forward to this year and Theranos has been shut down, massive corporations, such as Walgreens, have withdrawn from their partnerships with Theranos, citing failures to meet contractual agreements on Theranos’s part, and Holmes has been convicted of defrauding her investors4. With the help of Theranos whistleblowers Tyler Shultz, Adam Rosendorff, and Erika Cheung, Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou exposed many working deficiencies within the company, revealing the scandalous truth that the Edison was not a functional machine and that Holmes and her associates were utilizing external machines to run blood tests[3].
The downfall of Holmes’s empire is one of the many blatant examples of the increasing presence of power-hungry companies in healthcare. In a world where medical services are becoming more and more expensive and inaccessible, the last thing people need is this catastrophic, greedy battle between companies vying to create the next big vaccine or type of medicine, which even go as far as lying and defrauding their clients as a means to gain more profit.
While Theranos has the most notoriety in terms of their violation of ethical standards and their disregard for their patients, their unethical decisions are not uncommon in the biomedical industry. In fact, the rising price of prescription drugs from pharmaceutical companies has continued to make medical services inaccessible to many populations. It was reported that in January 2022, there was nearly a $150 average increase per drug1. Across the board, pharmaceutical companies are increasing the price of prescription drugs to the point of exceeding the inflation rate.
The COVID-19 pandemic, a devastating health crisis with wide-reaching effects, has forever tainted global history, with about 760,000,000 people contracting the disease and almost 7,000,000 people in the world dying from it9. Pfizer and Moderna, two of the giants in the pharmaceutical industry, were the first companies to announce COVID-19 vaccines. At the height of the pandemic, the US government purchased 200 million vaccine doses, paying a federal price of $19.50 per Pfizer dose and $15.25 per Moderna dose. Since then, the price for vaccine doses has risen, with the government now paying $30.48 per Pfizer dose and $26.36 per Moderna dose. However, what is even more shocking is that commercial prices for these vaccines are almost three to four times greater than federal prices. At an investor call, Pfizer claimed that they believed commercial prices for their vaccine to be between $110 and $130 per dose. Moderna also indicated that their commercial prices would be in the same range. While people with health insurance could get vaccinated at much lower rates, uninsured individuals would have to be confronted with high commercial prices[1].
In a chain reaction, rising healthcare prices lead to rising insurance costs and premiums[6]. This has enormous negative impacts on many people, ranging from employees having to pay higher healthcare costs as part of their company compensation, cutting into the pay they can take home, to forcing people to postpone much needed medical care and prescription drug refills due to unaffordable prices. Additionally, according to a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family and the Los Angeles Times, more than 27% of the respondents claimed they had problems paying medical bills, forcing them to resort to other methods to get enough money to pay, such as taking out loans or borrowing from friends and family1. Furthermore, in responding to Mercer’s National Survey of Employer-Surveyed Health Plans, many employers believe that medical cost plans will only continue to rise at an average rate of 5.6% in 2023[7].
In response to the prevalence of corporations setting exorbitantly high prices on healthcare services, the government has implemented certain measures to counteract these growing costs. The Biden-Harris Administration introduced the Inflation Reduction Act, which aims to lower the inflated costs of prescription drugs, making healthcare more affordable to all Americans2. One of the most prominent provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act involves forcing drug companies to pay rebates or refunds to Medicare if their prices rise faster than natural inflation[5].
Yet, there is still more to do. Despite helpful policy programs meant to advance healthcare equity, the inability to pay for basic medical care is still an epidemic that continues to be detrimental to so many people. People like Holmes and other corporations only further deteriorate the healthcare system in pursuit of their own selfish needs. In order to move forward, the U.S. government must place their citizens first and work towards legislation that can reform our healthcare system and promote equitable medical services and treatments for all.
Works Cited
1. 2022. (2022, December 7). How Much Could COVID-19 Vaccines Cost the U.S. After Commercialization? KFF.
https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/how-much-could-covid-19-vaccines -cost-the-u-s-after-commercialization/
2. Affairs (ASPA), A. S. for P. (2022, September 30). New HHS Reports Illustrate Potential Positive Impact of Inflation Reduction Act on Prescription Drug Prices. HHS.gov. https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/09/30/new-hhs-reports-illustrate-potential-positive -impact-inflation-reduction-act-prescription-drug-prices.html
3. Allyn, B. (2022, January 5). Theranos whistleblower celebrated Elizabeth Holmes verdict by “popping champagne.” NPR.org.
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/05/1070474663/theranos-whistleblower-tyler-shultz-elizabe th-holmes-verdict-champagne
4. Carreyrou, J. (2015, October 15). Hot Startup Theranos Has Struggled With Its Blood-Test Technology. WSJ; Wall Street Journal.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-has-struggled-with-blood-tests-1444881901 5. Cubanski, J., Neuman, T., & Freed, M. (2022, September 22). Explaining the Prescription Drug Provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. KFF.
https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/explaining-the-prescription-drug-provisions-in-t he-inflation-reduction-act/
6. Hughes, S., Gee, E., & Rapfogel, N. (2022, November 29). Health Insurance Costs Are Squeezing Workers and Employers. Center for American Progress.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/health-insurance-costs-are-squeezing-workers-a nd-employers/
7. Miller, S. (2022, August 16). Medical Plan Costs Expected to Rise 5.6% in 2023. SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/benefits/Pages/health-plan-costs-exp ected-to-rise-in-2023.aspx
8. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2019). Elizabeth Holmes | Net Worth & Facts | Britannica. In Encyclopædia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Holmes
9. WHO. (2022). WHO COVID-19 Dashboard. World Health Organisation. https://covid19.who.int