Gene sequencing company Illumina Inc is in late talks to buy cancer testing startup Grail, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
Grail could fetch more than the $6 billion valuation that it had reached from previous fundraisings, the report said, adding the companies could announce a deal as soon as this week.
Grail, which is developing a blood test to identify early-stage cancers, was founded by Illumina as a separate company in 2016 and is backed by Amazon.com Inc’s founder Jeff Bezos and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates.
Illumina is the single largest shareholder in Grail with a 14.6% stake, according to the company’s filing for a US listing last week.
In January, Illumina ended its $1.2 billion deal to buy smaller rival Pacific Biosciences of California Inc, after the US competition watchdog filed a complaint to block the purchase.
Full Content: Bloomberg
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