How a big biotech’s start-up gamble went wrong

Behind the Money

Topher Forhecz

Markets, Investing, News, Banking, Finance, Business, Business News, Crypto

4.4 • 350 Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Illumina, the world’s biggest gene sequencing company, announced plans to buy cancer detection start-up Grail for $8bn while the biotech boom was in full swing. To Illumina, Grail looked like a potential gold mine. Until reality — and regulators — entered the picture. Three years and an activist investor campaign waged by Carl Icahn later, the FT’s US pharmaceutical correspondent Jamie Smyth explains the problems that have cropped up and what it means for both companies and their shareholders.

Clips from Illumina Inc / Seeking Alpha, Yahoo

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For further reading:

Carl Icahn takes aim at genome sequencer Illumina over Grail deal

Has Illumina taken the wrong path in its Grail quest?

Quick blood tests to spot cancer: will they help or harm patients?

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On Twitter, follow Jamie Smyth (@JamieSmythF) and Michela Tindera (@mtindera07)

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Am I missing anything? Is this the right decision?
0:02.0	Can I show this data?
0:04.0	Am I too late?
0:05.0	Find clarity in your investment decision-making.
0:08.0	Manage your portfolio for sustainable growth
0:11.0	and regulatory alignment
0:12.0	with the ultimate blend of powerful AI and
0:14.6	industry expertise.
0:16.5	Reduce risk, meet your sustainability goals and push the boundaries of possibilities based on
0:21.1	facts, not opinions.
0:23.0	Clarity AI scaling human decisions through tech.
0:26.6	Visit clarity.
0:28.0	AI and take action today.
0:32.4	About three years ago, a biotech company called Illumina decided to make a big acquisition.
0:38.0	Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us on such short notice.
0:42.0	That's Francis Desuzza, the CEO of
0:44.3	Illumina at the time, speaking on an investor relations call in September
0:48.4	2020. I'm excited to share that earlier this morning we announced an agreement to acquire grail and to work together to
0:55.2	launch a new era in cancer detection.
0:58.3	This acquisition valued at $8 billion was presented as a way for Illumina, a company that makes gene sequencing machines,
1:05.8	to corner a new market in the realm of cancer screening and detection.
1:10.8	Now see, Illumina is in its own right a major player in biotech.
	...

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