The European Commission has prohibited, under the EU Merger Regulation, the implemented acquisition of GRAIL by Illumina.
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The merger would have stifled innovation, and reduced choice in the emerging market for blood-based early cancer detection tests. Illumina did not offer remedies sufficient to address these concerns.
Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “Today we prohibited Illumina's implemented acquisition of GRAIL. In a race with other companies, GRAIL is developing a blood-based early cancer detection test. If successful, these tests will revolutionise our fight against cancer and help to save millions of lives.
"Illumina is currently the only credible supplier of a technology allowing to develop and process these tests. With this transaction, Illumina would have an incentive to cut off GRAIL's rivals from accessing its technology, or otherwise disadvantage them.
"It is vital to preserve competition between early cancer detection test developers at this critical stage of development. As Illumina did not put forward remedies that would have solved our concerns, we prohibited the merger.â€
Today's decision follows an in-depth investigation by the Commission of the merger, which leads to the vertical integration of Illumina, the unrivalled supplier of NGS systems for genetic and genomic analysis, with GRAIL, a customer of Illumina using NGS systems to develop cancer detection tests.
These tests use a simple blood sample to detect different cancers in asymptomatic patients at an early stage and have the potential to be a game changer in the fight against cancer.
The acquisition would have enabled and incentivised Illumina to foreclose GRAIL's rivals, who are dependent on Illumina's technology, from access to an essential input they need to develop and market their own tests.
As a result, GRAIL's competitors would be put in a disadvantaged position compared to GRAIL.
The remedies offered by Illumina did not adequately address the Commission's competition concerns so that it could be concluded that competition would be preserved on a lasting basis. They did not fully remove Illumina's ability or incentives to foreclose GRAIL's rivals and would thus not have prevented the transaction's detrimental effect on competition.
Therefore, the Commission has prohibited the transaction. ■