Following deSouza Resignation, Illumina Must Abandon Illegal Merger with GRAIL
Washington, D.C. — In response to news that Francis deSouza is resigning from his position as CEO of gene sequencing company Illumina, Inc., the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.
“Mr. deSouza’s leadership at Illumina has been a disaster for the company, its investors, and the public at large. His departure is necessary, and it should be followed by an announcement from the Board that Illumina is abandoning its illegal acquisition of GRAIL,” said Katherine Van Dyck, Senior Counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project. “deSouza’s years-long battle to illegally distort competition in the research, development, and commercialization of cancer-detecting tests has been rightly targeted and blocked by antirust enforcers in the U.S. and Europe. The attempted acquisition has caused significant harm to Illumina, and proven Illumina investor Carl Icahn right in characterizing the effort as reckless, inexplicable, and unforgivable.”
The FTC challenged Illumina’s proposed acquisition of GRAIL in September 2022, alleging that the acquisition would “diminish innovation in the U.S. market for MCED tests while increasing prices and decreasing choice and quality of tests.” That same month, the European Commission also prohibited the acquisition after a lengthy investigation process. Both the FTC and EU concluded that the remedies Illumina and GRAIL proposed were insufficient and did not address the core harms of the deal. Since the GRAIL acquisition was announced, Illumina’s market capitalization has fallen from $75 billion in August 2021 to $32 billion today, and its stock has fallen from a peak of $524 per share to $201.
“Meanwhile, GRAIL’s early cancer screening products remain obscenely expensive and are not widely available,” added Van Dyck. “With Mr. deSouza out, Illumina and GRAIL have an opportunity to abandon this merger and their appeal in the Fifth Circuit, which is a bad faith radical attack on the power of every administrative agency in the United States. Indeed, the board of Illumina has a fiduciary duty to its shareholders to do so.”
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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.