Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA)

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"Walgreens Is Struggling to Shake Off Theranos"

"Many boldface names enabled the stratospheric rise of the blood-testing start-up Theranos: two former secretaries of state, a former secretary of defense, two former senators, a retired admiral, venture capitalists, scientific luminaries and a prestigious clinic.

None has been more important to Theranos than Walgreens.

The sprawling drugstore chain, now a part of Walgreens Boots Alliance, was Theranos’s first — and thus far only — direct-to-consumer retail partner, promising to eventually make Theranos’s “wellness centers” an integral part of its more than 8,000 stores nationwide.

When it announced the deal in 2013, Walgreens hoped to drive traffic to its stores and bask in the reflected glow from one of Silicon Valley’s hottest unicorns and its youthful founder and glamorous chief executive, Elizabeth Holmes..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/business/a-once-avid-ally-walgreens-is-struggling-to-shake-off-theranos.html?_r=0