July 14 Quick Takes: Illumina, BGI end U.S. legal battle
Plus FDA delays BeiGene’s BLA, Manifold raises $40M and updates from Theravance, Marinus, and more
Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) will pay BGI Genomics Co. Ltd. (SZSE:300676) $325 million to resolve claims across at least four lawsuits related to sequencing technology as the rivals agreed to a litigation standstill for patent and antitrust actions in the U.S. until Oct. 1, 2025. The ceasefire excludes IP related to non-invasive prenatal testing and IP of Grail Inc. related to multicancer early detection. Illumina also received a “fully paid-up license” to BGI’s 2-channel technology in its current and future forms, with no further royalties owed, while the Chinese company gained a similar license to the U.S. company’s trio of “image mix” patents.
Separately, the EU’s General Court ruled against Illumina’s complaint that the European Commission’s initiation of a review of the company’s $7.1 billion acquisition of Grail Inc. was not within the legal procedures of the EU Merger Regulation. Illumina had argued that the deal did not fall under the EU’s competition remit because Grail did not meet EU revenue thresholds to trigger a review and that the referral to the EC was made beyond the allowed time limit...