Peer-review is just intended to keep the obvious crap out of journals. It's an opportunity for paper authors to face objective questions from experts about things like their methodology, why did they do it this way instead of that way, are they aware of this potentially related work, why didn't they address this potential objection, etc.
It's also not unusual for scientific work originating in businesses to seek publication long after it has found application in the business. For example Google staff have published some important papers in computer science; but usually long after Google the product started using those techniques.
Now that they are under attack, Theranos' position would be greatly strengthened by having some peer-reviewed papers to wave around to show some legitimacy. But--the fact that they don't have those papers is not, by itself, proof that they are frauds.
It does seem likely that they are frauds--but that's because of direct investigation and reporting of their methods, not because of peer-review (or lack thereof).
“I don’t know if she’s another Steve Jobs,” said Jerry Yeo, professor of pathology at the University of Chicago and director of the Clinical Chemistry Laboratories there. “You have to subject yourself to peer review. You can’t just go in a stealthy mode and then announce one day that you’ve got technology that’s going to disrupt the world.”
Professor Yeo said that he and his colleagues wanted to see data and testing in independent labs. “We have a small army of people ready and willing to test Theranos’s products if they’d ask us,” he said. “And that can be done without revealing any trade secrets.” [1]
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/business/the-narrative-fra...
It's not unusual for independent testing to show effects significantly smaller than those reported in the clinical trials that lead to FDA approval.
Sometimes the results approach placebo levels.