Aug. 19 Quick Takes: FTC readies trial on Grail deal as Illumina says takeout is complete 

As the Federal Trade Commission readies to begin its trial related to the takeout of Grail Inc. by Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) on Tuesday, the DNA sequencing and array-based technology company has announced the completion of its $8 billion deal for the cancer detection play. Illumina said in a statement that there’s no legal barrier to its acquistion of Grail, but added that it will work through the FTC’s administrative process and abide by the eventual decision in the U.S. courts. It does plan to keep its new business a separate and independent unit, pending regulatory and legal challenges, including the EC’s review of the deal. The FTC, which contends the deal would harm innovation, will hold the trial virtually, with the public able to access the proceeding via telephone conference call beginning at 10 a.m. ET on Aug. 24.

Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd. (HKEX:1877; Shanghai:688180) and Coherus BioSciences Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRS) are expanding the push of Chinese PD-1 inhibitor toripalimab toward the U.S. market, with plans for BLA submission discussions for first-line non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following an interim Phase III readout. In the analysis of the CHOICE-01 study, toripalimab plus chemotherapy increased progression-free survival (PFS) to 8.3 months vs. 5.6 months for chemotherapy alone (HR=0.58) to meet the primary endpoint. A rolling BLA submission is under way in the U.S. for toripalimab, the first PD-1 inhibitor approved in China, in recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal cancer...