Walgreens to pay $44M to Theranos blood test customers

Walgreens Boots Alliance has agreed to a $44 million settlement to resolve class-action claims related to its partnership with Theranos, according to Bloomberg. 

The proposed settlement is still in need of court approval. 

Walgreens faced a class-action lawsuit accusing it of being “willfully blind” to the fraudulent company, which claimed to offer hundreds of lab tests with only a few drops versus vials of blood thanks to its proprietary technology, called Edison. Walgreens partnered with Theranos in 2013 to install kiosks in thousands of stores without validating its technology.

The lawsuit plaintiffs had received flawed blood tests in Arizona and California through the Walgreens-Theranos partnership. The proposed settlement will provide consumers who participated in the lawsuit with approximately double their out-of-pocket damages, Bloomberg reports. 

Theranos formally dissolved nearly three years after The Wall Street Journal uncovered discrepancies about the once-valued $9 billion company in 2015. Walgreens ended its partnership with Theranos in 2016 and shuttered testing locations.

Elizabeth Holmes, founder and former CEO of Theranos, was convicted of fraud in 2022 and sentenced to 11.25 years in prison. Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, former Theranos president, was also found guilty by a jury and is serving a 13-year sentence.