Filtering out con artists in the bio field

The government must be filter out another Holmes before providing sufficient support for scientists in the field.

JANG WON-SEOKThe author is a stock market news reporter of the JoongAng Ilbo. The medical field is wide and deep, but it is largely divided into two categories: diagnosis and treatment. While treatment seems to be the core, no treatment can be effective without an accurate diagnosis.

But making a diagnosis is quite a challenge. It would be nice if an experienced doctor could diagnose the condition right away. But it is quite rare. If there is any ambiguity, various tests, including a computed tomography (CT) scan, is employed. That’s why an easier — and simpler — diagnosis technology has been a long-cherished dream for the medical field.

A start-up claimed it could diagnose 250 diseases with a few drops of blood. The claim by Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, was sensational. When Holmes made this claim in 2012, many people were doubtful. As diagnosing so many diseases would certainly require a large blood sample, it was deemed technically impossible.

But Holmes was supported by a number of consumers who said that’s why it is a new technology. Her educational background, eloquent speech and turtleneck fashion quite reminiscent of Steve Jobs also added to the fantasy. Big shots like Rupert Murdoch invested a large amount of money followed by major pharmacy chain Walgreens that became a partner. Holmes soon emerged as a symbol of a self-made female billionaire.

Her lies that deceived the world ended in 2015 with an investigative media report. It found that such technology never existed and that the company made countless fabrications to conceal the truth. She was jailed on May 30.

Fraud takes place everywhere. But it is especially common in the bio industry because the purpose of the industry is to create something that never existed before.

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration has come up with a vision to upgrade pharmaceutical and bio technologies to national strategic technology and nurture them into an industry worth 100 trillion won ($78.2 billion). The government is determined to make biotech an industry representing the country, following semiconductors.

The aging of populations is inevitable, and infectious diseases and climate change are increasingly difficult to predict. As bio field is the most promising sector today, the direction of the government is right. But the government must be filter out another Holmes before providing sufficient support for scientists in the field.