Dermatologist hired to run Theranos’ lab testifies in Elizabeth Holmes’ fraud trial
With Theranos just starting to flounder, the president of the doomed technology startup in late 2014 hired his dermatologist to run the lab, insisting the job required “minimal” commitment.
Sunil Dhawan did not have any board certification in laboratory science or pathology when he was brought on as Theranos’ lab director by the company’s president and COO, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani. He was called to the stand on Thursday to testify in the criminal trial of Elizabeth Holmes, a one-time Silicon Valley darling accused of defrauding investors, doctors and patients by alleging her company could revolutionize medical lab testing with a unique technology, created to administer an array of tests with just a few drops of blood.
Both Holmes and Balwani, once romantically involved, were each indicted in 2018 on 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. They have both since pleaded not guilty to the charges.
During his testimony this week, Dhawan recalled how Balwani assured him that “the time commitment is very minimal” for the position, which he later described in an email to his dermatologist as a “ mostly an on-call consulting role,” according to CNBC.
Dhawan, who met federal and state requirements to fill the lab director gig, told the San Jose courtroom this week that he actually needed to Google “Theranos” and it’s alleged ground-breaking tech after he was first approached for the job.
Between November 2014 and the summer of 2015, he only went to the lab twice and worked a total of five to 10 hours. The skin doctor said he never interacted with anyone in the lab nor did he cross paths with any patients or doctors. He added that he did not even meet Holmes until the end of his run with the company.
Dhawan followed in the footsteps of Adam Rosendorff, a board certified pathologist, who quit in 2014 amid growing frustrations triggered by the company’s inaccuracies and unreliable results of the blood tests.
