Photograph: Philip Pacheco/Getty Photographs
What’s that saying about those that don’t be taught from historical past being condemned to repeat it? It appears to be like like Billy Evans — the associate of Elizabeth Holmes, who’s at present serving an 11-year sentence in jail for defrauding buyers of her blood-testing firm, Theranos — is … beginning his personal blood-testing firm. Have we realized nothing?
In line with the New York Occasions, Evans is elevating cash for an organization referred to as Haemanthus, which suggests “blood flower” in Greek, and has apparently already gathered hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in funding. The corporate, per the Occasions, is advertising itself as “the way forward for diagnostics” and “a radically new method to well being testing,” and can use synthetic intelligence to check blood and different bodily fluids, like saliva and urine, for illnesses. A photograph of the corporate’s prototype additionally appears to be like suspiciously like Theranos’s defunct testing machine. Anybody else experiencing déjà vu?
Whereas Evans, who shares two youngsters with Holmes, has not publicly commented, Haemanthus’s X account tweeted out an announcement denying that the corporate is the second coming of Theranos. “We’re Haemanthus. Sure, our CEO, Billy Evans, is Elizabeth Holmes’ associate. Skepticism is rational. We should clear a better bar,” the assertion says. “So we are going to talk straight. The unfiltered fact. No intermediaries. We favor to construct first, speak later. The science, when prepared, will stand by itself deserves. However we really feel compelled to introduce ourselves due to current media protection.”
We’re Haemanthus. Sure, our CEO, Billy Evans, is Elizabeth Holmes’ associate. Skepticism is rational. We should clear a better bar. When @nytimes contacted us, we invited them: see our lab, tech, and workforce. They declined. The headline was already written. Our actuality inconvenient.🧵
— haemanthus (@haemanthusinc) Could 11, 2025
Whoever is behind the Haemanthus account additionally wrote that Holmes has “zero involvement” on this enterprise. “This isn’t Theranos 2.0,” they wrote, whereas including that the corporate’s method is “essentially totally different.” “We use mild to learn the entire molecular story in organic fluids, seeing patterns present exams can’t detect. Not an enchancment. A unique paradigm,” the assertion says. “We’ve realized from her firm’s errors, however she has no position, now or future.”
Holmes won’t be straight concerned in her associate’s start-up, but it surely certain looks like she impressed it. She lately mentioned her days working in health-care tech aren’t over — the truth is, she’s been engaged on patents from jail. “There’s not a day I’ve not continued to work on my analysis and innovations,” she instructed Individuals. “I stay utterly dedicated to my dream of creating inexpensive health-care options out there to everybody.”
So does Holmes aspire to vary the corporate’s thoughts and be part of her associate’s enterprise endeavor, or is she attempting to construct a competitor? I’m wondering what her jail buddy, Jen Shah, thinks of all of this. I assume we’ll have to attend for Liz’s post-lockup memoir to listen to the entire juicy particulars.
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