NEWARK — Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday toured Theranos, a company that delivers low-cost blood tests, saying afterward, “Talk about inspirational, this is inspirational.”
Biden said Theranos is changing the paradigm of health care. “You are empowering people, whether they live in the barrios or a mansion, and allowing them to take control of their health care,” he said. “The president and I share your vision.”
Biden said traditional blood tests are expensive, inconvenient and painful. He pointed out that some people have a phobia of needles, and many never get the tests done that doctors have prescribed. Theranos is seeking to change that.
Company CEO Elizabeth Holmes was 19 when she dropped out of Stanford University in 2003 to start the company, which has its headquarters in Palo Alto. Theranos has developed a testing method using a finger prick that requires only a few drops of blood for a diagnosis.
The price of more than 100 of the company’s tests is under $10. The finger-prick blood tests often cost less than half of Medicare reimbursements, and the company posts its prices on its website.
“I believe we can change the system,” Holmes said. “We can make health care information more accessible.”
By diagnosing illnesses earlier with easy, inexpensive tests, more people can be treated in time to change the outcome, she said.
“The whole medical industry is on the cusp of change,” Biden said. Theranos is one of the leaders in changing the focus to preventive care, he said.
“Health care is not a privilege, it’s an absolute right,” the vice president said.
Biden made his remarks in a cavernous, warehouse-type room at the Newark facility, flanked by an American flag and shelves of technical equipment. The audience of about 150 were invited guests, many of whom were Theranos employees.
The company has more than 40 wellness centers in several Walgreens stores and other locations in Arizona, a Walgreens in Palo Alto and in Pennsylvania.
Holmes has a 50 percent stake in the Palo Alto startup, valued at $9 billion. Forbes magazine named the 31-year-old “the youngest woman to become a self-made billionaire.”
The company has hundreds of employees at its Newark manufacturing site.
The vice president and Holmes took part in a round table discussion on innovation and the role of the private sector in expanding access to health care with several Bay Area medical leaders: Dr. Robert Harrington, head of Stanford University Department of Medicine; Mark Laret, CEO of UCSF Medical Center; Amir Rubin, CEO and president of Stanford Hospital and Clinics; and Dr. Bert Lubin, CEO and president of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.
Also on the panel were Dr. Michael Roizen, chief wellness officer for the Cleveland Clinic; Gary St. Hilaire, president and CEO of Capital BlueCross; and Darin Gordon, director of TennCare.
Biden arrived in the Bay Area on Thursday after a stop in Southern California. He was scheduled to attend a Democratic Governors Association fundraiser at a private residence later Thursday before leaving San Francisco for Washington, D.C.
The vice president last visited the Bay Area in April for events in Oakland, Cupertino and San Francisco.
Biden thanked the large number of public safety officers protecting him during his Newark visit. He mentioned the fatal shooting of Hayward Sgt. Scott Lunger, killed during a traffic stop Wednesday.
“My heart goes out to his family,” Biden said.
Contact Rebecca Parr at 510-293-2473 or follow her at Twitter.com/rdparr1.