Shares of Illumina, the leader in DNA sequencing, have dropped 13% since news leaked last week that the company would be buying Grail, a startup developing a blood test to detect cancer. Obviously, not every investor loves the $8 billion deal.
But in an interview with STAT, the CEOs of the two firms — Illumina’s Francis deSouza and Grail’s Hans Bishop — said it would take time for investors to understand the advantages of combining the two firms. They argue that is particularly true in regard to the potential market for Grail’s two tests: Galleri, which will aim to detect cancer early in apparently healthy people, and a second, unnamed test, which is being designed to test for potential cases of cancer in patients who have symptoms of the disease.
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