Anne Wojcicki on comparison to Elizabeth Holmes: ‘Theranos was never transparent’

23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki joins 'Influencers with Andy Serwer' to weigh in on the Elizabeth Holmes saga and why it had ‘no’ impact on consumer trust of 23andMe.

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- I have to ask you about Elizabeth Holmes who's on trial for fraud allegations related to a home testing kit. Do you think the attention that she's garnered has had any impact on consumer trust of products like yours?

- I get the question quite a bit. And I would say, no. And people will ask me, how we're different? I say, well, we have hundreds of papers. Like, I have-- I have a culture of transparent science. Like, going back to my thesis on like, choice and transparency. Like, we are an incredibly science-driven company. And fairness was never transparent.

And to be honest, like, Theranos was an [INAUDIBLE] because again, you've had a woman who was running it. But there's other companies out there that are also not transparent, that don't get the same kind of publicity. So I think it's, again, it's good for everyone to push on. Especially in that world of science, you need publications. You need transparency. You need to be able to really understand how something is working.

So I focus more like, again, I think the heightened scrutiny of all companies I think is fabulous. And I would encourage, there's even more to make sure that people are understanding what exactly is this product that's out there. And I think this is where FDA has a real responsibility and a real opportunity to make sure that they're setting standards.