Pictured:Illumina sign on a building/Courtesy of Illumina
Sunday，Illumina announcedits CEO，Francis deSouza，was stepping down from the helm.Current senior vice president and general counsel Charles Dadswell will act as the company’s head in the interim。
DeSouza’s resignation is effective immediately，but he will remain with the company as an advisor until July31.Meanwhile，Illumina’s board is looking both with in and outside the company for deSouza’s replacement，“who can drive advancements in healthcare，growth and shareholder value，“the press announcement read。
The news comes months after activist investor Carl Icahntried to placethree of his representatives on Illumina’s board ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meetinglast month.In his pitch，Icahn pointed to deSouza’s and the incumbent board’s failure“to take actions to maximize value for the company’s stockholders.”
In particular，Icahn pointed to Illumina’s2020acquisitionof cancer detection company GRAIL，for which it put$7.1 billion on the line.The deal has faced several regulatory roadblocks due to potential anti-trust issues.In March 2021，the Federal Trade Commission filed acomplaintto block the buyout，claiming that if it pushes through，“the acquisition would substantially lessen competition in the U.S.multi-cancer early detection（MCED）test market.”
Soon after，the EU’s European Commission管道安装into the matter.In September 2022，the Commissionvetoedthe GRAIL buyout and forced Illumina to divest the cancer detection company。
In March 2023，the FTC also漏斗，漏斗that the acquisition，which had already been completed at the time，was indeed in violation of anti-trust policies and was，therefore，unlawful.The federal body ordered Illumina to divest GRAIL。
Icahn latched onto this in his bid to get representatives elected，pointing to the board’s“reckless decision to close the GRail transaction”despite mounting objections by regulators。
Inturn，this has led to a situation where“Illumina is forced to pay for the ongoing operations of GRail without the ability to integrate GRail into Illumina’s operations and therefore cannot realize any synergies or cost savings from the acquisition，”Icahn said。
输入到Icahn’s allegations，Illumina’s leadership released its own series of letters in which it可回收设备commitmentto保护挡板value，underlined the superiority端板candidates versus Icahn’s and高强度焊接in Icahn’s plan。
预应力测量from the annual meeting，posted May2023，showed that eight of nine board nominees won seats.Only one of Icahn’s hopefuls was elected。
Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in metro Manila，Philippines.He can be reached attristan@tristanmanalac.com或，或tristan.manalac@biospace.com。
