The Silicon Valley startup that promised hundreds of tests from one drop of blood
Palo Alto, California, United States, 2003 to 2018
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
In 2003, a 19-year-old student dropped out of college and founded a blood-testing company that claimed it could run quick, accurate tests on a few drops taken from the fingertip, using its own device. The company raised more than 700 million dollars from investors, was valued at around 9 billion between 2013 and 2014 and, from 2013, brought its sample collection to more than 40 stores of a large pharmacy chain, mostly in Arizona.
In October 2015, a Wall Street Journal report, backed by sources inside the lab, revealed that most tests ran on ordinary commercial analyzers, with small samples diluted under unvalidated protocols, and that the results from the company's device could be inaccurate. In January 2016, the federal agency that oversees laboratories pointed to immediate jeopardy to patient safety; the company voided two years of results from the device, the pharmacy chain ended the partnership and sued the company, and Arizona secured a refund of 4.65 million dollars to residents of the state.
Sources
In the game
One Single Drop
Palo Alto, California, Friday, 8 am. Aurevia, a startup valued in the billions, promises 200 tests from a single drop of fingertip blood, inside a little white box called the Prism.
In March 2018, the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged the company, its founder and its president with fraud, and the company shut down in September of that year. In January 2022, a San Jose jury convicted the founder of defrauding investors and acquitted her of defrauding patients; the sentence was 11 years and 3 months. Her partner was convicted on all counts and received 12 years and 11 months. The game borrows the miracle device, the diluted fingertip drop, the hidden commercial analyzers, the wrong results delivered at pharmacies and the source inside the lab. Characters, the night before the inspection and the outcome are fiction.
