Proove Biosciences, which sold dubious DNA tests to predict addiction risk, sells off assets as CEO departs amid criminal probe
By Charles Piller,
STAT
| 08. 31. 2017
Proove Biosciences, a formerly high-flying genetic testing firm whose science and business practices have been challenged by experts and former employees, has been placed into court-ordered receivership for “restructuring and asset sale,” according to the company’s founder and former CEO.
Proove’s founder, Brian Meshkin, said in an interview on Thursday that he no longer works at Proove, which rang up $28 million in revenue last year. Meshkin blamed the company’s fall on investigative articles published by STAT last December and February. Those articles quoted experts who expressed deep doubts about the company’s scientific claims that it could predict a patient’s likelihood of becoming addicted to opioids. “Hogwash” was the assessment of Dr. Mary Jeanne Kreek, a leading researcher on genetic links to addiction at Rockefeller University.
STAT’s investigations also described business practices — including coercing patients to take unnecessary genetic tests — that former Proove employees and outside experts described as unethical and possibly illegal.
In June, agents from the FBI and Department of Health and Human Services agents raided Proove’s offices in Irvine, Calif. to collect truckloads of documents...
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