This could be a textbook case intended to illustrate the theory of free competition. Can the takeover of Grail, an American biotech specializing in cancer diagnosis, by Illumina, the world’s number one sequencer, lead to a monopoly situation? This is what the European Competition Commission must decide, while the first meeting of the genomics sector takes place this Tuesday in Paris.
These are certainly two American companies – one, Grail, does not operate on the territory of the European Union, but the other equips more than 90% of public and private biology laboratories with sequencers. Pressed by the deadline for its offer on Grail which expired on December 20, Illumina chose, without waiting for the Commission’s verdict, to complete the acquisition for 7.1 billion dollars, preferring to take the risk of a European fine. up to 10% of its turnover (3.2 billion in 2020) rather than miss the opportunity and pay the penalty of 300 million dollars for abandoning its offer.
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