US biotech giant Illumina to challenge EU merger veto

US biotech giant Illumina said on Tuesday the company will challenge the European Commission’s prohibition of its $8bn acquisition of Grail — a firm that develops blood-based early cancer detection tests. “It is vital to preserve competition between early cancer detection test-developers at this critical stage of development,” EU commissioner for competition Margrethe Vestager said, going against last week’s ruling by the US federal trade commission.