European Union regulators ordered Illumina to divest Grail. Illumina is appealing antitrust findings in Europe and the U.S., but the DNA sequencing giant revealed that divesting all or part of Grail is an option even if it wins both legal challenges.

Illumina must pay a €432 million fine for closing its Grail acquisition before the European Commission finished its inquiry into the tie-up. The penalty is the maximum amount the regulator can impose on a company for breaching European merger rules.

The Federal Trade Commission has ordered Illumina to divest Grail, the liquid biopsy company it acquired for more than $7 billion. The agency said Illumina’s proposed remedies are insufficient and the tie-up is likely to reduce competition in the R&D and commercialization of new cancer tests.

Through the new collaboration, Carrum Health is offering GRAIL’s cancer test called Galleri as a benefit option for employers. It is an early-detection test for more than 50 types of cancer.

Check out new developments from Memory Health, Carrum Health, Carmine Therapeutics and Alleva.

Grail, a company focused on early cancer detection, introduced its test that screens for more than 50 kinds of cancer last year. At AWS’ Thursday conference for healthcare and life sciences innovation, the company’s chief security officer explained how the company is evaluating the test in clinical trials and preparing to file for its FDA approval.

In closing its Grail acquisition before U.S. and European regulators sign off, Illumina is taking a chance the deal will pass regulatory muster. It’s a potentially pricey gambit, as Illumina could face fines for its early action and there are no assurances that regulators will agree that the deal is not anticompetitive.

The Federal Trade Commission and the European Union are reviewing the soundness of this acquisition. But if Illumina acquires Grail, the company that it spawned back in January 2016, will it squeeze the nascent liquid biopsy market?

The Federal Trade Commission is opposing Illumina’s proposed $7.1 billion Grail acquisition, arguing that it will reduce competition for multi-cancer early detection tests. Illumina disagrees with the regulator’s position and will oppose the FTC’s challenge.

Following years of research and investment, liquid biopsies are steadily accumulating FDA approvals. The tests are being used in molecular profiling of solid tumors and as companion diagnostics for targeted cancer therapies.

Illumina originally spun off Grail in early 2017. Grail plans to launch its test for early detection of cancers, Galleri, next year. Illumina already owns 14.5% of the company, which it started in 2016.

GRAIL, a startup developing cancer liquid biopsy tests, raised a $390 million series D round. Read more about which companies raised funding this week.

The company plans to present the validation data, from its Circulating Cell-Free Genome Atlas, at an ASCO conference taking place in Bangkok this weekend.

The study, by US and Korean researchers, found Guardant360’s detection of MSI-H/dMMR “highly concordant” with that of standard tissue biopsy, including in a subset of gastric cancer patients who responded to immunotherapy.

The South San Francisco company intends to use the funding to launch its pivotal trial for its blood-based colorectal cancer screening and submit its test for parallel review for CMS coverage.

In data at the ASCO meeting last week, Grail showed a 1 percent false-positive rate. While that number seems likely to go down, even such a low rate can make a significant difference for patients.

The company plans to present early data in a poster on Saturday showing no more than 1 percent of tests generated false-positive results across 12 solid tumor and blood cancers.

Bloomberg had reported in February that the biotechnology startup company was considering a $500 million fund raise for a listing in Hong Kong, but reconsidered due to market conditions.

Lower costs for capital and sequencing, a friendlier regulatory and reimbursement environment and growth in precision medicine are among driving factors.

Investment could be called frothy, but hasn’t reached bubble territory yet, SVB report author says.

The most recent MoneyTree report from PwC and CB Insights highlights the biggest biotech-related and medical devices VC deals in Q2, which include investments in companies like Grail, Allogene Therapeutics, RefleXion Medical and Mevion Medical Systems.

Next-generation sequencing firm plans to present data on its gargantuan genomics study at ASCO next month.

After the surprise departure of its founding CEO in August, Illumina spin-out Grail has named Roche/Genentech’s Global Head of Clinical Operations Jennifer Cook as its new leader.

Billion-dollar private venture capital rounds are apparently now a “thing.” Roivant sealed the deal on Wednesday, following a multi-year trend towards bigger investment rounds in the life sciences.

Illumina spin-out Grail revealed Wednesday that Jeff Huber is stepping down as CEO of the billion-dollar early cancer detection startup.

Providence St. Joseph Health recently hired Microsoft executive Venkat Bhamidipati as CFO. His appointment points to a trend of healthcare organizations eyeing the tech sector for new talent.

Guardant Health has unveiled an ambitious five-year plan to sequence tumor DNA from one million cancer patients. Dubbed “Guardant 1 million,” the push will be financed with $360 million in new financing from a broad syndicate of investors.

The results of the study will serve as a baseline measure for detecting breast cancer in the blood and inform the development of Grail’s pan-cancer screening test.

For the first time, population health startups attracted more investment than other digital health subsectors,

With a billion dollars in private financing and a test projected to generate a terabyte of data per person, Grail has seeded a new category of diagnostics and Big Data. Despite this, the company story shared by CEO Jeff Huber is mostly about people.