Holmes Faked Pharma Backing to Lure Walgreens Deal, U.S. Says

Studies by Pfizer Inc. and Schering-Plough Corp. touted by Theranos Inc. to pitch its blood-testing technology shared a common flaw: they weren’t real, according to U.S. prosecutors.

In a bid to get the Walgreens drug-store chain to use her cutting-edge machines, Elizabeth Holmes sent documents she described as “independent due diligence reports” on Theranos from some of the leading pharmaceutical companies.

Wade Miquelon, chief financial officer of Walgreen Co. in 2010, was one of the executives who received some of these reports, which Holmes said were confidential. Miquelon told jurors hearing evidence in Holmes’s fraud trial Tuesday that he ...