2023-06-08 13:49:06 ET
House Republicans are renewing a call for the Federal Trade Commission to provide it information over its review of Illumina's planned $7.1 billion takeover of cancer screening test maker GRAIL, which the regulator blocked.
"The FTC's approach to the Illumina-GRAIL merger departs from the FTC's normal processes and raises questions about the Commission's reliance on foreign jurisdictions to enforce U.S. laws," Republicans Jim Jordan, Darrell Issa, and Thomas Massie, wrote in a letter Thursday to FTC Chair Lina Khan.
The Republicans renewed a request for materials about the antitrust regulator's review of the deal, which the lawmakers originally requested in September 2021.
The push from the Republican legislators comes after the FTC ordered Illumina in April to divest GRAIL, which it acquired in August 2021, over competition concerns in the cancer test market. In December, the European Commission ordered Illumina ( NASDAQ: ILMN ) to divest GRAIL three months after an EU veto of the $7.1 billion acquisition on antitrust grounds and concerns about the impact on innovation.
The FTC voted 4-0 in April to block the deal after the agency's chief administrative law judge in September 2022 declined a challenge from the FTC to scuttle the $7.1 billion deal.
Illumina on Monday filed an appeal to the FTC's decision, according to a filing with the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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House Republicans seek information from FTC over Illumina's Grail takeover