US regulators have banned Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and chief executive of Theranos, from operating laboratories for at least two years, the troubled blood-testing company said late Thursday. Theranos said that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) had imposed sanctions on the company after finding problems at its Newark lab in northern California.
Theranos has been under investigation by civil and criminal authorities for months amid questions over the reliability of its innovative blood tests. The Silicon Valley start-up says its technology delivers quicker, less expensive blood-test results than traditional laboratories. Theranos said that the CMS sanctions revoke its federal license for lab testing of human specimens at the Newark facility, including "a prohibition on owners and operators of the lab from owning, operating or directing a lab for at least two years."