Sept. 1 Quick Takes: setback for FTC over Illumina’s Grail acquisition

An administrative law judge has ruled against the Federal Trade Commission’s challenge of Illumina’s acquisition of Grail, Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) said. The ruling, which rejected the FTC’s assertion that the acquisition would limit competition for multicancer early detection tests, could be a setback for the FTC’s plans to use new theories of harm to scrutinize life sciences M&A.

In a separate release, Illumina said its new manufacturing site in Shanghai, the company’s first in China, will produce 16 sequencing reagents for clinical use by Dec. 31. Illumina aims to fully localize production of its gene sequencing instruments and consumables within the next five years...