Theranos settles legal dispute and plans to reopen a lab in 2019
Troubled biotech firm Theranos could reopen a laboratory as early as 2019 after it settled a legal dispute with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Theranos dropped its appeals against a two-year laboratory ban and sanctions on its Newark lab, and voluntarily gave up its Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments certificates. Theranos, whose blood testing system was found to be faulty, still faces investigations and the challenge of regaining the faith of investors and customers.
Theranos has been headed toward disaster for a while through its questonable blood testing methods, but it might have just avoided the worst possible outcome. The biotech outfit has reached a settlement with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that should end the legal and regulatory fights between the two. In return for Theranos dropping appeals of both its 2-year lab ban and sanctions on its Newark lab, CMS has decided against revoking Theranos' Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) certificates and reducing the civil financial penalty to $30,000. Theranos is voluntarily giving up the certificates, as it's not running labs that would need them.

This doesn't put Theranos completely in the clear. It still has to worry about investigations, for a start. And even if it can put all its regulatory troubles behind it, there's still the matter of regaining the shaken confidence of investors and would-be customers as it pivots toward research and development. That's much, much harder. Nonetheless, Theranos is likely happy to relieve some legal pressure and raise the possibility of opening labs once its ban is over in 2019.