Apparently Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes attended the Forbes Healthcare Summit last week and when asked some almost-pointed questions retreated to the politicians positions of vague generalities. Link below if interested. In the meantime, because they decided to go with the black box/trade secrets approach to IP they have left themselves open to folks who understand patents.
From Fierce:
Google Life Sciences edges into Theranos terrain with needle-free, micro blood draw patent filing
The appetite for new med tech projects at the recently formed Google Life Sciences seems bottomless. Not only does it have at least a half-dozen ongoing med tech R&D initiatives, but it's also constantly in the process of securing patents on the next stage of projects that are on the heels of what it's already disclosed publicly.Here's Ms. Holmes.
Earlier this week, a Google patent filing for a laser ablation system patent was released. Now its latest is a patent application disclosed on Dec. 3 for a needle-free blood draw device for use in any sort of diagnostic including blood glucose or for use in a handheld device.
Example devices for needle-free blood draw--Courtesy of Google Life Sciences
Although the patent originally was filed in May 2014, it was just published now in line with U.S. Patent and Trademark policy to publish patent filings 18 months after an application is made.
The patent filing describes a method for needle-free blood draw that would rely upon a negative pressure barrel that would release microparticles with enough force to pierce the skin and elicit tiny blood droplets. The vacuum barrel would then draw in at least part of that blood.
Google envisioned that this tiny quantity of blood could be used in a wide variety of diagnostic tests. It could also be incorporated into a handheld device similar in size and shape to a pencil or conventional hypodermic needle-carrying barrel.
Or it could even go into a wearable, wrist-worn device that could draw blood as well as connect to the cloud for data analysis, storage and communication. That specific version seems to be of a wrist-worn blood glucose monitor based upon these micro blood samples that could operate automatically....MORE
