THE TRUTH ABOUT PROOVE BIOSCIENCES
NOT THE FALSE STORY BUT THE REAL, EMPIRICAL FACTS
The Real Story
Question from Andrew Keeler, Answers from Brian Meshkin
Interview with Brian
So tell me about Proove?
“Proove was the leader in precision medicine for the nation’s most prevalent and most expensive healthcare condition – chronic pain. Precision medicine, as defined by NIH, involves the analysis of genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors to better understand health so that you can give a patient the best treatment possible. I founded the company with this social mission – knowing that if we could deliver on the promise of precision medicine for such a large condition – we could have a huge impact on almost every patient in the world. I started Proove in December 2009 and by 2015, we were 170 employees at $17M in revenue. And by 2016, we were 278 employees and $28M in revenue. We invested heavily in R&D – over $20M – and we transferred technology from some leading academic centers including UNC Chapel Hill and the University of Utah. Our unique R&D model was based on our name – Proove. Proove’s testing helped doctors understand patient pain perception, risk for opioid abuse, and which medications would work best for the individual patient. We literally tracked the outcomes for almost every patient tested by Proove in order to prove how the doctor used the test and whether the patient improved. Based on data across various insurance types – Medicare, Cigna, Blue Shield of California – you name it, about 90% of patients had an average pain reduction of about 3.5 points on a self-reported scale – or about 40% to 50% in less than 90 days. I am so proud of what we achieved – with over 150,000 patients tested and incredible outcomes, it is very rewarding to know we made such a positive impact. Our data was so strong and research so extensive that we won numerous awards from medical societies for our research. With the leading researchers in pain genetics working with us, we did great things.”
To learn more about Proove’s achievements, Click Below
Question: So after all these good things, what happened with Proove?
To learn more about Proove’s response to the allegations, Click Below
Question: You must be so upset. Why didn’t you respond to the allegations sooner?
Answer: “That’s a good question. Looking back, it was probably a mistake not to respond to the Piller articles sooner. Our thought was to “take the high road” as the accusations were so outlandish. And despite sending Piller information, he clearly had an agenda and chose to ignore primary sources. After his first article, our attorneys suggested we not respond to his further questions. We probably should have responded with force earlier, as the second story wouldn’t have caused so much damage. He’s actually a very pleasant guy to speak with over the phone. I’ve never met him in person, and don’t know why he had an agenda. But clearly he did. In speaking with the guys who hired and fired him years ago at the LA Times, they said that his reputation was as a journalist who couldn’t quite deliver the goods. So, I guess this is just another example. Once those allegations piqued the government’s curiosity, we had to respond and we posted a corporate response. And then when the FBI showed up with a subpoena, it was truly ironic. I told them how ironic it was that Proove had the only technology with peer-reviewed published evidence to help solve the dueling health crises of chronic pain and opioid abuse – a cause that we should working together with the Department of Justice on solving – yet they were wasting their time looking into false allegations instead of working together with us to help people. We obviously cooperated with the government – as we always had. However, never in a million years, did I ever think that false allegations from disgruntled ex-employees would be given any credibility. Unfortunately, they were given an audience. And so employees that I had personally helped – whether it was paying off Bruce’s credit cards and giving him money for a housing down payment, or paying for Rhonda’s mother’s funeral and internment, or you name it, all of those good deeds came back to bite me as those became the people who spread the lies.”
To learn more about the conspirators who devised the lies, click below.
Q: Only a couple more questions, and I appreciate you giving me so many sources to use. I’m interested in how you explain the criticisms from credible scientists or physicians in the articles?
A: “That’s a great question. As I shared with Piller, it is fair for scientists or physicians to share criticisms. It’s part of the scientific debate. At the time of the first article, Proove only had a few peer-reviewed, published studies to support its science and about 100 scientific posters. I shared that we had a bunch in press to be published. And since then, I believe about 10 papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals. So, you have another huge irony. You have other copy-cat companies out there doing small studies with 60 patients or 100 patients, having two posters and one peer-reviewed publication, and the media reports that as “Scientifically Validated” but Proove with multiple studies with over 10,000 patients, have 100 posters, research awards, and over 10 peer-reviewed studies was represented as not scientifically valid. It’s actually quite silly. But I’ve come to learn that journalists are not always interested in the truth or facts, but rather a more controversial story. Another crazy accusation was the criticism of Proove’s research. Good research generally follows a pattern and Proove’s research was consistent with Good Clinical Practices.”
To learn more about how the “Big Lie” spread and how false those accusations are click below