Fake startups
Most of the medical startups-"unicorns" are based on pseudoscience
Sergey Kolenov, Hi-tech+
Many companies have earned billions on promises to create new methods of treatment and prevention of diseases. However, most are not ready to confirm their statements with the help of scientific articles. The industry is waiting for new revelations and scandals.
Theranos promised its customers the diagnosis of many diseases based on a simple blood test from a finger. However, then it turned out that the technique does not work. This led the company to collapse, and its management to the dock. A team of researchers from Stanford and New York Universities, which includes the famous scientist John Ioannidis, claims that many startups can repeat the fate of Theranos.
Ioannidis and his colleagues selected 48 medical and biotechnological "unicorns" – startups whose value is estimated above $1 billion – and then analyzed the scientific articles published by them.
It turned out that a quarter of companies did not even try to confirm their promises with the help of peer-reviewed publications. Another half published articles that were almost not cited.
Although such startups claim to rely on science, in fact they are more likely to use questionable internal research and media hype, Business Insider notes.
Ioannidis says he would like to consider Theranos the only "rotten apple." But the results of the study indicate a crisis of the entire industry.
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He names several large companies that hardly publish proofs of their concepts.
Among them are Intarcia Therapeutics, which develops implants for the treatment of diabetes and HIV prevention. The startup was founded about 20 years ago and during this time published only six peer-reviewed articles, none of which attracted the attention of the scientific community. Nevertheless, today the company is already worth $4 billion.
Founded in 2010 Moderna Therapeutics earned $5 billion on promises to create RNA therapy for cancer and infectious diseases, but published only one significant work. Another 16 publications went unnoticed due to the weak significance of the conclusions.
In addition to biotech companies developing revolutionary drugs and treatments, scientists included financial startups working in the healthcare sector in the analysis. Many claim that they save time and money for patients, but they are not able to confirm this with research. The most famous of them is the insurance company Oscar Health.
According to Ioannidis, as the market for biotech startups grows, the share of companies that do not publish articles in peer-reviewed journals also increases. This is a dangerous trend, because the life and health of patients depend on their activities.
The study is not the first wake–up call for an overheated biotechnology market. Earlier it was reported that startups working in this area can create a new financial bubble.
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