The Wall Street Journal reported on April 3 that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) vetoed Illumina's $7 billion acquisition of cancer detection developer Grail, stating that the deal would harm competition in one of the new fields of diagnostic medicine.
FTC Orders Illumina to Undo Proposed Merger, Overturning Administrative Law Judge's Prior Ruling Favoring the Large Medical Testing Company
The FTC claims that the merger of these two companies will harm the development of the early cancer screening market and raise prices, as Illumina is a leading producer of genetic sequencing instruments used in these tests to detect signs of cancer in blood samples. "Given the critical importance of rapidly developing effective and affordable tools for early cancer detection, this is deeply concerning."