What is deemed possible in the wake of failure? The global biotech industry's failure to develop affordable diagnostic devices for use in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has inspired a generation of humanitarian entrepreneurs to launch their own diagnostic start-up companies. This essay traces the rise and fall of one such start-up in Boston in the United States, Daktari, which developed a portable HIV testing device in the 2010s. I show how the alignment of humanitarian and economic valuations in a single diagnostic device depended on the ability of the start-up's founders and employees to synchronize the distinct tempos of financial capital, humanitarian design, and global health standards. Yet their failure to achieve this synchronization does not simply offer another story of biotech hype and speculation, the generation of promissory value at the expense of actual things. Instead, the essay examines the hopes and expectations that the firm's employees invested in the device's material qualities, manufacture, and distribution. What, I ask, is the meaning of failure, and its material remains, when it is measured against humanitarian rather than solely commercial expectations? The essay concludes with some reflections on the aftermath of failure in humanitarian entrepreneurship, examining the questions that Daktari's demise poses for understandings of what is possible and desirable in global health.

中文翻译：

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让我做一个测试，我将拯救世界：走向全球健康可能的人类学

失败后什么被认为是可能的？全球生物技术行业未能开发出供中低收入国家 (LMIC) 使用的负担得起的诊断设备，这激发了一代人道主义企业家创办自己的诊断初创公司。本文追溯了美国波士顿一家这样的初创公司 Daktari 的兴衰，该公司在 2010 年代开发了一种便携式 HIV 检测设备。我展示了单一诊断设备中人道主义和经济估值的一致性如何取决于初创企业的创始人和员工同步金融资本、人道主义设计和全球健康标准的不同节奏的能力。然而，他们未能实现这种同步并不仅仅提供了另一个生物技术炒作和投机的故事，以牺牲实际事物为代价来产生约定价值。相反，这篇文章考察了公司员工对设备的材料质量、制造和分销的投入的希望和期望。我问，当根据人道主义而非仅是商业期望来衡量失败时，失败的意义是什么？它的物质仍然存在？本文最后对人道主义创业失败的后果进行了一些反思，研究了达克塔里 (Daktari) 的消亡提出的问题，以了解全球卫生的可能性和可取之处。当根据人道主义而不是单纯的商业期望来衡量时，失败的意义及其物质仍然存在吗？本文最后对人道主义创业失败的后果进行了一些反思，研究了达克塔里 (Daktari) 的消亡提出的问题，以了解全球卫生的可能性和可取之处。当根据人道主义而不是单纯的商业期望来衡量时，失败的意义及其物质仍然存在吗？本文最后对人道主义创业失败的后果进行了一些反思，研究了达克塔里 (Daktari) 的消亡提出的问题，以了解全球卫生的可能性和可取之处。