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Erin Woo

OK, and we’re now back to an email Downey brought up, where Holmes wants to put the language around the venous draw in the main body of text. The language she wanted called venipunctures “uncommon.” Bostic points out that venous draws were used in 40 percent of the time at Walgreens.

 

Erin Woo

Bostic: Who had final say over what results were reported in the demo? Edlin: Daniel did and Elizabeth did.

 

Erin Woo

Bostic: Was part of that a desire to show that the technology performed well? Edlin: Yes. Bostic: How is this purpose served by hiding errors? Edlin: I don’t know. Bostic: What about withholding results? Edlin: I don’t know.

 

Erin Woo

Rapid-fire questioning from Bostic just now. Edlin: The purpose of the tech demonstrations was to “showcase or demonstrate the Theranos technology. In some cases, tests were run. In others, tests weren’t run. In general, to show the functionality of the Theranos technology.”

 

Erin Woo

Back from break, and Bostic says he has around 30 minutes left of cross-examination. Downey says that we’ll finish with Edlin today. We’re now looking at a document regarding the Limited Objective Experiment with the U.S. Central Command, which Edlin testified again did not occur. Completion of this study was a prerequisite to clinical use of Theranos devices by the military, Edlin confirms.

 

Erin Woo

Downey wraps cross, and Bostic is back for redirect. We’re starting with the relationship with the military. Bostic notes that only 28 people participated in the burn study. Edlin also doubles down on his previous testimony that the military never used Theranos devices on soldiers.

 

Erin Woo

Looking at another email about the brochure for Walgreens, where Christian Holmes is relaying feedback from Elizabeth. Throughout cross, Downey has brought up emails/instances where Elizabeth has advocated for transparency and disclosure to counteract what we saw in direct.

 

Erin Woo

Back from break and looking at a presentation Edlin helped prepare for an investor. In an email questioning the accuracy of a claim in one graph, Holmes wrote: “If they currently do refrigerate then we should reflect that so we are making an accurate claim.”

 

Erin Woo

Downey is trying to establish that the use of the demo app, brought up by the government, isn’t deceptive/malicious, pointing out that someone may show up and not get their blood drawn and that there were different protocols for different scenarios.

 

Erin Woo

Downey is discussing the demo app, which as shown before shields failures from the patient. “You were not trying to deceive anyone in this demo process, correct? And you did not understand that anyone else at Theranos was trying to deceive anyone in this process?” Edlin agrees.

 

Erin Woo

Shifting topics to demos, after around an hour of questioning about Theranos’s military relationship. Around 10-15 people worked on the team to do demos, with Daniel Young reviewing and approving all demos, Edlin testifies.

 

Erin Woo

Givens wrote that the machine “seemed to function well in the environment,” and her only complaint was the touch-screen. She wrote that she hoped to get funding for a full proposal.

 

Erin Woo

Downey is bringing up emails from Melissa Givens of U.S. Africa Command and former Theranos V.P. Daniel Young indicating that the device performed well in high temperatures in Africa. Yesterday, the government showed evidence saying that the devices couldn’t operate over 82 degrees.

 

Erin Woo

Good morning from San Jose! Daniel Edlin is back on the stand. We’re still expecting former Pfizer diagnostics director Shane Weber next.

 

Erin Woo

We’re breaking for the day. I’ll be back tomorrow at 9 a.m. for more of Edlin’s cross-examination.

 

Erin Woo

Downey asks Edlin a series of questions around whether he ever took steps to put forward any claim he knew to be false. Edlin says repeatedly that he did not. “That information was reliant on information you had gotten from scientists in the company, correct?” “Yes.”

 

Erin Woo

Downey started by having Edlin confirm that he was not a tech expert — Edlin majored in public policy at Duke.

 

Erin Woo

And — defense changes the subject completely. We’re back to talking about Theranos’s technology as we begin cross-examination.

 

Erin Woo

With that, we’re through with direct and onto cross. Testimony is scheduled to end at 3 today, so Edlin will likely continue tomorrow.

 

Erin Woo

Edlin said he was in meetings where Balwani said he would defer to Holmes. “Generally, she was the C.E.O., so she had the final decision-making authority.” Edlin said he saw them disagree about “certain topics.” When they disagreed, Edlin says there wasn’t always a decision that was made. He saw times when Balwani would defer to Holmes but can’t recall the reverse.

 

Erin Woo

Back from break. Bostic is pivoting to what Edlin observed of Holmes and Balwani working together. Holmes and Balwani had offices next to each other with glass walls. They often ate lunch together and were in discussion together, he said, but nothing else stands out.

 

Erin Woo

We’re going through slides approved by Holmes and sent to the military for a 2012 burn study. After many claims, Bostic asks Edlin whether he knew at the time whether this was true or not. Edlin says repeatedly he didn’t know, but he had no reason to doubt it. One exception: One bullet read that most results could be obtained in less than 20 minutes, but Edlin testified that demo run times were usually longer than 20 minutes.

 

Erin Woo

In the doc: “Theranos has created a point-of-service laboratory infrastructure that generates real-time data from a finger-stick of blood or other micro-volumes of different sample types delivering higher quality data than previously possible.” Also: “Each Theranos device can run every test currently available through the traditional centralized or hospital laboratory infrastructure.” Edlin testifies: “I had no reason to believe it wasn’t true.”

 

Erin Woo

We are now looking at a document that was sent to Major Steven Cook. “Everything in this document was reviewed and approved by Elizabeth,” Edlin testifies. Holmes was highly involved in every discussion/email communication he had with the military, he says.

 

Erin Woo

Switching topics to Theranos’s interactions with the military. Edlin helped support Theranos’s military and D.O.D. relationships. “The end goal for these communications was to set up a research program that would compare Theranos testing to the testing available to the military.”

 

Erin Woo

Edlin testifies that he doesn’t remember Holmes asking him to take out language like this from investor binders, and says that he remembers presentations like this being sent to other investors as well.

 

Erin Woo

Under the heading “Same Tests, a Whole New Approach”: “The actionable information you need, 1/1000 the size of a typical blood draw.” This page also says “the highest levels of accuracy and precision.” Theranos’s attorney flagged this language in conjunction with the website.

 

Erin Woo

Included in a binder sent to Rupert Murdoch: “Theranos’s proprietary, patented technology runs comprehensive blood tests from a finger-stick and tests from micro-samples of other matrices, and generates significantly higher integrity data than currently possible.”

 

Erin Woo

Edlin testifies that he would prepare binders for investors. “Elizabeth asked to review them and once they were reviewed and approved … I would send them to investors,” he said.

 

Erin Woo

Bostic shows Edlin the purported Pfizer/Theranos study report, but Edlin doesn’t know who created it or put the logo there, he testified.

 

Erin Woo

The marketing on Theranos’s draft website included “a tiny drop is all it takes” and “highest level of accuracy.” In a four-page email, Theranos attorney Kate Beardsley raised accuracy questions about some of this marketing, in some cases asking for substantiation or suggesting changes (i.e., “full range” to “broad range,” “highest quality” to “high quality”).

 

Erin Woo

Edlin testifies that Holmes was “very involved and detail-oriented” in reviewing and approving Theranos’s marketing. “For the end product, and for what actually went onto the website, she did review that.”

 

Erin Woo

Dec. 27, 2015, email from Holmes regarding a “VIP guest”: “You can say we do run those assays, but were not able to run them on this sample, apparently due to a human error in sample handling.” However: We just saw an email from a Theranos scientist saying it was not human error. This email was in regards to a Forbes writer who planned on writing about his experience.

 

Erin Woo

Regarding those results: Bostic enters a Jan. 7 email from Tina Lin to Edlin, noting some issues with the results (some high, some low). “We have no sample for rerun since it was a short draw,” she wrote. Theranos began testing in wellness centers over a year ago, Bostic notes.

 

Erin Woo

Jumping ahead to the Murdoch investment. Jan. 6, 2015, from Holmes: “I [sic] would be an honor to have you be part of our company.” Jan. 7 from Murdoch: “Thanks, Elizabeth. Enjoyed every minute of it. Any blood results? See you soon, Rupert”

 

Erin Woo

Email from Edlin: “Unfortunately by the looks of the Thyroid panel results below it appears to have had major issues again.” Balwani: “To say this is deeply disappointing will be a gross under statement.” This was about a month before the public launch, Edlin testifies.

 

Erin Woo

We’ve spent the morning so far looking at different email chains in which Daniel Young instructed Edlin to change or remove abnormal test results from demo reports. Holmes has been included on many of these emails.

 

Erin Woo

The jury is seated, and Daniel Edlin is back on the stand. We’re…