European Commission calls for reversal of Illumina’s $7bn Grail merger

The commission on Monday sent a “statement of objections” outlining the process Illumina must follow in divesting Grail, its blood-testing spinoff founded in 2016. Illumina had reacquired Grail in August despite criticism from the FTC and the EU.

The FTC filed a complaint against the merger last March over concerns that Grail’s early cancer detection liquid biopsy tests (MCED tests) would stifle innovation. “With this transaction, Illumina would have an incentive to cut off GRAIL’s competitors from access to its technology or otherwise disadvantage them,” European Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager said in a statement earlier this year.

Illumina, on the other hand, argued that the merger would be “pro-competitive and will accelerate innovation”. “Illumina can make GRAIL’s life-saving cancer screening test more available, affordable and accessible – saving lives and reducing health care costs,” General Counsel Charles Dadswell previously said in a press release.

While the FTC’s complaint was dismissed in September, the EU blocked the acquisition just days later. Following that decision, the Commission said in its recommendations on Monday that Illumina “should restore GRAIL’s independence from Illumina to the same level that GRAIL had prior to the closing of the transaction.”

Obviously to be continued…