硅谷发明家：吸血成金

使我非常相信她 我信任她
so I really trusted her. I believed in her.
我会在离开实验室的时候觉得
I would leave the tiled world thinking,
完蛋了完蛋了
"Oh man, sinking ship."
然后只要和Elizabeth聊一会天
And I would go have one conversation with Elizabeth.
Theranos的创立 是为了提供一种
Theranos was founded with the goal
更人性化 可操作的健康体验
of creating a more human, actionable health experience.
如果你开始了解你的身体
If you can begin to understand your body...
我就会十分振奋的回来工作
And I would be so motivated to go back and work,
又觉得我在改变世界
and I felt like I was changing the world again.
可当我回到实验室
And I would go back into the tiled world,
就会想 等等 刚才发生了什么
and I would go, wait, what just happened?
她是那么的希望这件事成真
You want it to be true so badly,
即使是我
and even for me, I was working with these devices
每天都用这些设备工作的我
every single day,
她依然能说服我
and she could still kind of convince me.
当我回顾这些对话时
When I think back on those conversations,
我只想知道 她是怎么做到的
I just think, how did she do that?
有时我甚至开始怀疑是我自己疯了 你懂吧
You kind of start to believe that maybe you're the one who's crazy, right?
因为所有人都觉得她太伟大了
Because everyone else thinks this woman's great,
每个人都想给她投资
and everyone else wants to throw money at her,
想要成为公♥司♥的一员
wants to be on board with this, and wants to be a part of it.
那时候 她就是全民偶像
I mean, at the time, she was this iconic figure,
科技领域 改变一切的女性
this woman in tech who was revolutionizing everything,
简直就像Steve Jobs的复♥制♥版
this is like Steve Jobs imitation.
有时 你真的觉得你是错的那个
Sometimes, you have to think maybe you're wrong.
当时你会怀疑
At the time, you wondered whether
Elizabeth的人脉在保护她
Elizabeth's connections were protecting her.
这某种程度上引发了一场信任危机
It kind of caused a bit of a crisis of faith in,
政♥府♥的权力究竟是什么
you know, just the power of government, and how
这种保护对我来说算不算腐♥败♥
corrupt or not they were for me.
我当时真的以为Theranos可以逃脱法律制裁
You know, I thought that Theranos was going to get away with it.
你的定价创下历史新低
You're charging historically low prices,
比起现有定价
which is a small fraction
只是很少一部分
of what is charged now,
同时还保证了最高品质
and while maintaining the highest standards.
她的政♥治♥人脉
With all her political connections,
她和奥巴马政♥府♥关系亲密
she was chummy with the Obama administration.
她赌的是
The bet that she made was that
如果她被政要围绕
if she surrounded herself with powerful people,
监管者就无法与她对峙
the regulators wouldn't get confrontational with her.
最终策略 我觉得
The end game, I think,
是"成功之前先假装成功"的理念
it comes back to "fake it until you make it."
Elizabeth从没放弃她的终极梦想
Elizabeth never gave up on her ultimate vision
不仅要把这个设备送进实体店
to get the device not only in stores,
最终 送进患者家中
but ultimately, in the homes of patients.
她想要像苹果公♥司♥和Steve Jobs一样
She wanted to be like Apple and Steve Jobs,
因为苹果设备已经无处不在
in the sense that Apple devices are ubiquitous.
她也想要Edison设备在每个美国家庭里
She wanted Edison devices in every home in America.
但想要实现这一目标 需要FDA(食品及药物管理局)的审批
The only thing is you need FDA approval to make that happen.
我采访过FDA的医疗主管
I did talk to the Chief Medical person at the FDA,
他表达了怀疑的态度 他说
who expressed some skepticism. He said...
"他们没有提供足够的材料
"They have not provided enough information
来证明检测可以通过审批"
for the agency to clear or approve the test."
这样说准确吗
Accurate?
所以 这是
So, is this something that
- 你想要用在文章中的话吗 - 是的
- you wanted actually to use in the article? - Yes.
好吧 这也是很有挑战的工作
Okay, so that's part of a challenge
因为我们的法务团队很关心此事
because that our legal team is so concerned about this
因为这涉及到很多方面
because there's a lot of context behind that.
这也给我们造成了 很多问题
It creates- - causes a lot of problems for us.
所以我才需要知道答案
That's why I'm asking for context.
说吧 我听着呢
Give it to me. I'm all ears.
好吧 让我和法务团队谈谈
Okay, let me talk to our legal team.
目前 他们让我不要就此事发表评论
Right now, they told me that I can't comment on this...
Elizabeth在跟FDA打太极
Elizabeth was tap dancing around her discussions with the FDA.
Theranos给FDA寄去了一大堆语言模糊的解释性信件
Rather than submit full applications,
唯独没有提交完整的申请报告
Theranos flooded the FDA with vague exploratory letters,
试图拖延时间
trying to stall for time,
想拖到爱迪生能完成Theranos在广♥告♥中说的那些测试之时
till the Edisons could do all the tests that Theranos advertised,
也许需要拖好几年
and that could take years.
与此同时 Theranos在帕洛阿尔托的设施
In the meantime, the Theranos operation in Palo Alto
正在被CMS(医疗保险和医疗补助服务中心)认证
was being regulated by CMS,
CMS是管理医学实验室的联邦机构
the federal agency in charge of clinical labs.
Theranos也在跟他们打太极
Theranos was also playing games with them.
虽然有些患者的检测是在爱迪生上做的
Even though some patient tests were performed on Edisons,
Theranos从未上报这些结果
Theranos never reported those.
他们上报给CMS的数据都来自第三方设备
The company only gave CMS the data from third- party machines.
公♥司♥决定
The decision was
把Immulite和西门子Advia
let's send what was on the Immulite
上的数据发给CMS
and on the Siemens Advia.
不要把爱迪生的数据发出去
Let's not send the Edison results.
这事真的吓到我了
And that really freaked me out
因为这说明
because that was suggesting that,
我们不相信爱迪生的测试结果
okay, we didn't trust the Edison test.
在这儿 我们能做这个区分
And here, we were able to make that discernment
何种数据是适合发出去的
of what was the appropriate one to send,
但是我们不能对患者做这样的事
but we weren't doing that with patients.
CMS来做检查的时候
And when CMS came in for the inspection,
Sunny和Elizabeth只给他们看了
Sunny and Elizabeth only showed them the lab
放着西门子Advia和Immulite的实验室
with the Siemens Advia, the Immulite.
他们从未带着CMS去楼下另一个实验室
They never took them downstairs to the secondary lab,
我们在那用爱迪生做指尖采样检测
where we processed all the fingersticks on the Edisons.
他们严格要求我们坐在办公桌前
They strictly told us to stay at your desk.
不想让我们中的任何人参与检查
They didn't want any of us down there
因为他们害怕检查员发现
'cause they were scared if the inspectors
实验室的真面目 那会带来巨大的麻烦
saw what was going on, that could have huge consequences.
这令我们感到心生反感
It just seemed scandalous to us.
越来越觉得实际上没什么希望
It was getting to the point where there was really no hope.
你知道 我那时已经基本上决定要辞职了
You know, I'd pretty much decided that I was going to quit.
我一辞职
Right after I resigned,
就去了我祖父在斯坦福的办公室
I went to my grandfather's office at Stanford,
给他展示了很多数据
and actually showed him a lot of data,
说明了我看见的事情
and the discrepancy between what I was seeing
和被发表的事情之间的不符之处
and what was being published,
我也解释了这些区别
and the explanation for those differences.
但是他似乎并不相信我说的话
But he didn't really seem to believe what I was saying,
他说 "Elizabeth告诉我
and he said, "Elizabeth has told me that
Theranos真的可以做到他们宣称的那些事情
"Theranos really can do all the things that it says it can do.
Theranos是 更准确的 将会改变世界
"Theranos is, you know, more accurate, going to change the world.
他们试图告诉我你很蠢
"They're trying to convince me that you're stupid.
他们做不到说服我相信你很蠢
"They can't convince me that you're stupid,
但是他们可以说服我相信你是错的
"but they can convince me that you're wrong.
我确实认为你是错的
"And I do think that you're wrong,
继续你的生活吧"
so move on with your life."
几个月之后
A few months afterwards,
华尔街日报的John Carreyou
John Carreyou from the Wall Street Journal
在领英上发给我一个消息
sent me a message on LinkedIn.
我完全陷入了恐慌
I was definitely in a panic.
我在Theranos的时候
There were confidentiality agreements
签过保密协议
that I had signed while I was at Theranos.
所以 我去用现金买♥♥了一部一次性手♥机♥
So, I went and bought a burner phone with cash.
我打给他 然后在这通电♥话♥里
I called him, and in that phone call,
我决定要帮助他
I decided that I wanted to help him out.
我说 你知道 我的祖父挺过了水门事件
I said, you know, my grandfather made it through Watergate,
挺过了伊朗门丑闻 保持了他的廉正
and the Iran- Contra scandal with his integrity completely intact.
一旦他意识到这是个骗局
Once he becomes aware of the fraud that's happening,
他会尽一切努力做正确的事情的
he will do everything he can to make things right.
我想给他这个机会
And I want to give him that opportunity
因为 他那时候已经94 95岁了
because, I think he was 94, 95 at the time.
所以 我去见了John本人
So, I met with John in person,