But Theranos would not lose its license for the California lab, or its ability to operate the Arizona lab, until after the appeals process is exhausted, buying it some time.

Even if the company can continue to operate the Arizona lab, the business there has shrunk. Walgreens, with which Theranos had a deal to perform tests, pulled out of the partnership last month and closed the Theranos blood collection centers that were in about 40 of its drugstores in the Phoenix area. Now Theranos must rely on a handful of collection sites it owns itself.

The sanctions could put pressure on Ms. Holmes to step aside, though it was not clear if that could happen without her consent, given her control of the company. Even if she stepped aside as chief executive, the ban on Theranos operating laboratories might still apply.

It is also unclear who could or would take her job.

“The company was so tightly controlled by her and Sunny Balwani that there is no clear executive you can name who can take over while she is banned for two years,” said Jondavid Klipp, publisher of Laboratory Economics, an industry newsletter. Mr. Balwani was the chief operating officer at Theranos until he resigned in May.

Mr. Klipp said that even if Theranos continued to operate its laboratory, “it’s hard to imagine why a physician would send a patient to a Theranos lab when there are established, reputable choices.”

One option for the company would be to sell blood-testing machines to other laboratories, rather than operate its own laboratories. It hinted at this on Friday, saying the laboratory was just one of its business units and that “its research and development unit has developed many technologies that are not dependent on running a laboratory.’’