Anti-competitive Illumina

Someone sent me the following email in response to my article on possible Illumina sanctions, I thought it might be interesting the review and explore the points mentioned, breaking them down one-by-one:

Interesting read, but you missed the fact the China is retaliating on Illumina because Illumina (after failing in the lawsuit you mentioned) scuttled off to congress to lobby for the biosecure bill. It’s all reported in GenomeWeb.

The legislation what would become the Biosecure act passed committee on March 6th 2024. But quoted an advisory from way back in 2021 (I wrote about this over here).

So, at least some of the foundation for this legislation began before Illumina lost $325M to the BGI in 2022.

Illumina have spent a lot of money on lobbying, according to OpenSecrets much more than much larger companies like Thermo Fisher:

Most of Illumina’s lobbying seems to be around early stage cancer detection (GRAIL). But the Biosecure act is certainly in there (mostly in 2024 when their lobbying spend had decreased):