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Walgreens cuts ties with embattled Theranos

The drugstore chain says it is ending its relationship with the blood-testing startup and closing all Theranos blood-draw sites in Walgreens stores, which affects 40 sites in Arizona.

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Ashlee Clark Thompson
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Ashlee Clark Thompson Associate Editor
Ashlee spent time as a newspaper reporter, AmeriCorps VISTA and an employee at a healthcare company before she landed at CNET. She loves to eat, write and watch "Golden Girls" (preferably all three at the same time). The first two hobbies help her out as an appliance reviewer. The last one makes her an asset to trivia teams. Ashlee also created the blog, AshleeEats.com, where she writes about casual dining in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Elizabeth Holmes, CEO of Theranos, faces a two-year ban from the blood-testing business.

Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images

Walgreens has ended its relationship with embattled blood-testing startup Theranos, the drugstore chain announced Sunday.

Theranos was once a promising company that set out to innovate blood testing. Two years ago, Theranos was valued as high as $9 billion. But Theranos has faced increased scrutiny, along with civil and criminal investigations, since a Wall Street Journal report in October suggested Theranos' blood-testing devices were flawed.

Walgreens began to step away from Theranos in January when the company ended Theranos lab testing at its Palo Alto., California, location and told Theranos to stop sending tests to its lab. Now, Walgreens will close all 40 Theranos blood-draw sites in Walgreens stores, all of which were in Arizona, the company said in a statement.

Brooke Buchanan, vice president of communications at Theranos, said in a statement that the company is disappointed in Walgreens' decision but remains "fully committed to our mission to provide patients access to affordable health information and look forward to continuing to serve customers in Arizona and California through our independent retail locations."

Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes faces a two-year ban from the blood-testing business. Though the investigations aren't complete, there is already a Theranos movie in the works set to star Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes.